Kraken became the second cryptocurrency exchange after Binance to get regulatory approval to allow it to operate in the United Arab Emirates. Kraken is now allowed to operate in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the Abu Dhabi international financial center and free zone.
After obtaining the crypto trading license, Kraken will now provide local investors to the global crypto market through the dirham (AED) trading pairs, which marks a diversification in trading pairs to use local currencies instead of using the traditional British pound and US dollar.
Integrating with local banks in UAE
With the new crypto trading license, Kraken intends to integrate with local payment service providers in Abu Dhabi; something Kraken’s managing director Curtis Ting believes will help Kraken bring global-level liquidity to UAE.
Dubai is specifically known to have massive crypto following with a trading volume of more than $25 billion annually.
Curtis Ting said:
“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 [trading pair].”
Crypto exchange interest in the Middle East
While Kraken has only obtained its first crypto trading license in the Middle East, Binance, its competitor, has already gotten crypto trading licenses to operate in both Dubai and Bahrain.
Following the influx of regulated crypto exchanges in the Middle East, local businesses have also started stepping into the crypto world. Citizens School in Dubai, for example, started accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as tuition payments where the crypto payments are automatically converted into dirhams.
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