Kraken to open headquarters in Abu Dhabi

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi after receiving a license to operate a regulated trading platform in the UAE. CNBC reports.

“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to organise our operations at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM),” said Curtis Ting, the managing director for the region EMEA.

It will offer deposits and withdrawals, as well as trading in a dirham-denominated pair.

According to Chainalysis, the Middle East is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets in the world, accounting for 7% of global trading volumes. From July 2020 to June 2021, the UAE ranked third in the region for this metric, behind Lebanon and Turkey.

In spring 2022, the Bitcoin exchange Binance received in-principle approval from ADGM to operate as a broker-dealer for virtual assets.

Earlier, the company obtained a license to provide cryptocurrency services in Dubai. Subsequently, Binance opened more than 100 vacancies at its emirate office.

Earlier in April, it was reported that Kraken would close its headquarters in San Francisco due to a high crime rate.

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