UAE residents can soon trade in cryptos, virtual assets in dirhams after RAKBank-Kraken deal

Dubai: One of UAE’s leading financial institutions, RAKBank has aligned with Kraken to allow residents trade in virtual assets through their local bank accounts and in dirhams. Kraken is one of the bigger digital asset trading platforms.

This way, UAE-based clients can fund their crypto account through local fund transfers from any bank in the UAE. Kraken was the first global exchange to have received a full license to operate as a regulated virtual asset exchange platform in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Currently, UAE residents who trade virtual assets must use banks - or foreign correspondents outside the UAE - to fund their trading. This means they incur higher FX costs and fees, ‘experience long lead times (more than 24 hours) and are subject to overseas-jurisdiction asset governance’.

With the RAKBank-Kraken tie-up, ‘UAE residents will be able to fund their account faster and at lesser costs, all while remaining within the UAE’s jurisdiction’. “The UAE is emerging as a global hub for the crypto and virtual assets industry,” said Raheel Ahmed, CEO of RAKBank. “Kraken’s UAE-based investors will be able to transact in virtual assets transparently and efficiently through an ADGM-regulated crypto exchange that has the ability to convert between Dh and crypto through UAE Central Bank-regulated banking channels.”