Kraken to Open New Office in Abu Dhabi

Kraken cryptocurrency trading platform is making plans to establish a regional office in Abu Dhabi after receiving a full operating license from the Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). As reported by CNBC, Kraken will come off as the first trading firm to offer Dirhams trading pair with Bitcoin (BTC).

“We’re incredibly excited to be able to set up our operations right in the ADGM [Abu Dhabi Global Market] itself to operate a virtual asset platform that finally offers Dirham pairs for investors in the region,” Curtis Ting, Kraken’s managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “For us, it’s really important to facilitate access to global markets and global liquidity by making sure that investors and traders in the region have access to local currencies.”

Abu Dhabi is notably a gateway for Kraken which wishes to establish its presence in the broader Middle Eastern region that is known to control as much as 7% of global trading volumes per data from Chainalysis. While not notably defined, Kraken may be looking to extend its influence into Turkey and Lebanon, the other countries in the region with a massive crypto trading volume.

The Next Global Crypto Powerhouse

The Middle East is now being tagged as the next major crypto hub, considering the influx of a number of Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs) looking to establish their regional headquarters in the area.

Earlier Binance exchange also secured a license to operate in the region, riding on the innovative crypto regulations being introduced by the regional government. Additionally, the World Trade Center is also playing a very key regulatory role in the growing crypto hub, pushing forth the broader agenda to take crypto mainstream in the region.

“One of the reasons we see an influx of entrepreneurs, builders, operators and developers coming into Abu Dhabi and Dubai … is because there is a sense of greater regulatory clarity at ADGM, in Dubai, and at a federal level,” Ronit Ghose, global head of fintech and digital at Citi, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” last Thursday.