Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued Payward FZCO VASP licence VL/26/10/002 on October 6, 2026. VARA’s public register lists the licence as active and permits Payward to serve institutional, qualified, and retail investors. The record does not state an issuance time or a financial amount.
Payward is the regulated entity identified by VARA, while the same record points users to Kraken’s UAE website. Kraken’s official release title says the company plans a UAE launch following the full market approval. It does not put a dated launch milestone in the title.
What the licence covers
VARA lists two licensed activity categories for Payward: Broker-Dealer Services and Management and Investment Services. The regulator describes the record as authorization for specific activities and product types, and tells readers to check the full record before deciding what the VASP may undertake.
That wording matters because a VASP licence is not a blanket approval for every product on a global exchange. Payward’s record does not list Exchange Services, Custody Services, Lending and Borrowing Services, Advisory Services, or Category 1 VA Issuance among its licensed activities. The public register presents those as separate activity categories for Dubai VASPs. Kraken users should therefore distinguish the two categories shown in Payward’s record from the broader menu they may see on Kraken websites in other jurisdictions.
The licence condition is broad across client classes. Payward may serve Institutional Investors, Qualified Investors and Retail Investors. The record does not limit the licence to professional counterparties or institutions. It also does not describe separate product sets for the three classes. Eligibility, onboarding, and product availability still need to be checked against the UAE service when it opens.
Payward’s principal place of business is listed as Unit UT-12-CO-74, DMCC Business Centre, Level 12, Uptown Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. VARA gives the entity CMA registration number CMA-VASP-0101000-0067. Those identifiers give users and counterparties a way to match the service they are offered with the legal entity in the regulator’s record.
VARA says its public register includes both fully licensed VASPs and firms holding In-Principle Approval. The distinction determines whether a firm may begin regulated activity. According to the regulator, an IPA is conditional and its holder cannot start virtual asset activities or serve clients until it receives a full VASP licence. Payward’s entry now says VASP Licence and Active, rather than In-Principle Approval.
The register also separates activity scope from client eligibility. Broker-Dealer Services and Management and Investment Services describe what Payward may provide. The licence condition identifies who it may serve. A retail user can confirm that the permitted client classes include retail investors, but that condition does not add an activity category that is absent from the record. An institution can make the same check without assuming that institutional eligibility converts the licence into an approval for every Kraken service. This distinction gives compliance teams two separate questions for onboarding: whether Payward may serve the client class, and whether the proposed service falls within the activities listed by VARA. The public record answers those questions at category level, while product terms must answer them for a specific account or transaction.
From May authorization to the final record
Kraken had announced an earlier authorization on May 21. Its post said: “Kraken is now authorized by VARA in Dubai. Authorization covers spot, margin, OTC, staking, and institutional access through Kraken Prime. $AED funding follows later this year.”
The October register entry adds the final legal details that users could not get from that short announcement. It names Payward FZCO, supplies the licence reference, records an active status, identifies the licensed categories, names the permitted investor classes, and provides the Dubai business address and CMA registration number.
The two primary records use different levels of classification. Kraken described products such as spot, margin, OTC, staking and Kraken Prime. VARA records regulatory activity categories rather than that product list. The public register is the controlling document for checking what Payward is licensed to do in Dubai. A product named by Kraken may still carry eligibility rules or launch only after operational readiness.
The licence also has a geographic boundary. VARA states that it is the sole virtual asset regulator across Dubai’s mainland and free zones except the Dubai International Financial Centre. Payward’s principal address is in the DMCC Business Centre, and its licence appears in VARA’s Dubai register. The record should not be read as a licence issued by the DIFC regulator or as authorization for jurisdictions outside Dubai.
What changes for users and operators
For UAE users, the active record provides a regulator-listed entity to verify before depositing assets or accepting account terms. The useful checks are the Payward FZCO name, licence VL/26/10/002, active status, kraken.com/ae website, and the client class condition. A different company name, licence reference, or website would not match this record.
For institutions and DeFi operators, the broker-dealer and management and investment permissions create a regulated counterparty path in Dubai, but the register does not itself confirm that every Kraken product is live. Firms evaluating OTC execution, staking, margin, or Kraken Prime should verify the contracting entity and product terms rather than treating the global product page as proof of local availability.
The same caution applies to dirham rails. Kraken’s May post said $AED funding would follow later in 2026. The final register entry does not specify deposit methods, withdrawal methods, trading pairs, fees, or a launch date for dirham funding. Those details affect whether users can enter and exit without routing through another currency, but they remain outside the licence record.
The next milestone is Kraken’s UAE service launch and the activation of the product set covered by Payward’s permissions. The open points are the launch date, which products will be available to each investor class, and when $AED funding becomes operational.
