Kraken Gets Full VARA License for AED Crypto Trading in Dubai

Kraken's parent company Payward secured a full market product and service license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority on October 12, 2026, clearing the way for regulated dirham-denominated crypto trading in the UAE. Here is what a VARA license actually changes for UAE-based and international investors, and how to keep your crypto and stock holdings in one place.

What did Kraken get approved for in Dubai?

Kraken's parent company, Payward, received full market product and service approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) on October 12, 2026. This upgrades the preliminary approval the company obtained in May 2026 and lets it offer regulated crypto trading to residents and institutions in the emirate.

The headline change is support for the UAE dirham (AED) as a trading and settlement currency. Instead of routing through the US dollar or a stablecoin, users can buy and sell assets like BTC-USD and ETH-USD directly against AED on a licensed venue.

VARA is the world's first regulator dedicated solely to virtual assets, set up by Dubai in 2022. A full license from it signals that the exchange has cleared capital, custody and compliance checks that many offshore venues never face.

What does a VARA license actually mean for investors?

A VARA license means an exchange operates under a dedicated legal framework with rulebooks covering custody, market conduct, and client-money protection. For an investor, that is the difference between a counterparty supervised by a regulator and one operating in a grey zone.

The practical protections that come with full VARA authorization include:

• Segregated client assets, so your coins are not pooled with the exchange's own balance sheet.
• Local legal recourse under UAE law if something goes wrong, rather than chasing an offshore entity.
• AML and KYC standards aligned with the broader UAE financial system.
• Published rulebooks on market conduct, so manipulation and wash trading carry consequences.

None of this is a guarantee against loss. Prices still move, and regulation does not make Bitcoin or any token less volatile. It changes who is watching the venue, not what the asset does.

Why does AED trading matter if you already use USD?

Trading crypto directly in AED removes a hidden currency conversion that quietly eats into returns. If you earn and spend in dirhams but trade in dollars, every buy and sell carries an FX spread on top of the trading fee.

The conversion cost most people never measure

Consider a UAE-based investor who funds an account in AED, converts to USD to buy SOL-USD, then converts back to AED on exit. That is two FX legs, each with a spread that can run 0.5% to 1%. Native AED pairs collapse that into a single currency.

For investors holding both local assets and crypto, currency movement is a real line item, not a rounding error. This is exactly why we built foreign-currency handling into tracking stocks and crypto together in one app so the FX gain or loss shows up on its own.

How PortfolioTrackr separates price gains from currency gains

PortfolioTrackr converts the cost of a foreign holding at the exchange rate of the day you bought it, and the value at today's rate, then shows the currency gain or loss as its own line. You see what the asset did and what the dirham did, separately.

• The cost uses the purchase-day exchange rate.
• The value uses today's rate.
• The currency gain or loss appears as a distinct line on the summary card and the P&L chart.
• Dividends convert at the pay-date rate, sold holdings at the sale-day rate.

PortfolioTrackr holds 10 years of daily exchange rates for 100 currencies, so a position bought in AED, USD or anything else is valued correctly across its whole history.

How do you track crypto and stocks in one portfolio?

You track crypto and stocks together by using a tracker that covers both asset classes and converts every holding into one display currency. A pure stock app or a crypto-only wallet forces you to do mental math across two screens.

PortfolioTrackr spans 100 stock exchanges and 100 currencies, which means an investor in Dubai can hold shares on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), US names like AAPL on the Nasdaq, and crypto, all in one combined view.

Ways to add your holdings

You do not need to connect a broker or exchange to start, and connecting one is always optional. Every plan supports:

• Smart & Easy Import by voice, text or screenshot.
• Bulk CSV import, handy for exporting a full trade history from Kraken.
• Manual entry for self-custody coins, which are added by hand, by CSV or from a screenshot.
• Direct sync with Alpaca, Bybit and Interactive Brokers on every plan.

For wider broker coverage, 42 brokers connect through the SnapTrade bridge on a paid Pro or Lifetime plan. Each connected broker gets its own read-only portfolio that does not count toward your portfolio limit. If you are weighing the trade-offs, our guide on connecting a brokerage account to a portfolio tracker walks through the setup.

How do self-custody and exchange coins fit in the same view?

Self-custody coins are entered manually, by CSV or from a screenshot, because PortfolioTrackr does not read wallet addresses or connect to crypto wallets. Exchange balances can come in the same ways, or by direct sync where supported.

A typical UAE crypto investor might end up with holdings spread across:

The ALL PORTFOLIOS combined view is available on every plan for anyone with more than one portfolio, so these separate buckets roll up into a single net-worth figure.

Can you set price alerts on regulated crypto holdings?

Yes. PortfolioTrackr lets you set price-level alerts on any position and any watchlist ticker, and crypto is checked around the clock. Stocks and ETFs are checked once a minute while their market is open, and closed markets at night, on weekends and on holidays are skipped.

The alerts are price levels only:

• Target 1 and Target 2 on a position.
• A stop-loss level on a position.
• A price above or below on a watchlist entry.

When BTC-USD crosses a level you set, you hear within a minute by email, WhatsApp, Telegram or push on every plan, with SMS on Pro and Lifetime. PortfolioTrackr reports status against your own levels, for example "Target 1 reached", and does not give buy or sell advice. The watchlist carries 10 tickers on the free trial and Starter, 50 on Pro and Lifetime.

What should UAE and international investors check now?

A new regulated venue is a good moment to review how your crypto is organized rather than a prompt to change positions. Things a holder can check for themselves include:

• Whether your exchange and wallet balances are all captured in one place.
• Whether your cost basis is recorded in the currency you actually funded with.
• Whether price alerts sit at the levels that matter to you.
• How a crypto position sits against your own targets, not anyone else's.

Regulatory moves are landing across the region and beyond, from Thailand allowing Bitcoin and Ether ETFs to custody developments like Standard Chartered adding RLUSD custody. Each one changes where and how you can hold assets, which makes a single consolidated view more useful, not less.

The bottom line

Kraken's full VARA license brings regulated, dirham-denominated crypto trading to the UAE, with the custody, client-money and conduct protections a dedicated regulator enforces. For investors, the headline benefit is trading in AED without stacking two FX conversions onto every round trip.

Whether your coins sit on Kraken, a hardware wallet or alongside DFM and US shares, the practical task is keeping them in one view with cost and currency tracked correctly. PortfolioTrackr brings crypto and stocks across 100 exchanges and 100 currencies into a single portfolio, so you can see price gains and dirham gains as separate lines.

Crypto and stocks in one portfolio

Track coins alongside equities, ETFs and funds, in your own base currency, with the same alerts and P&L on both.

Start Free Trial

See the live demo first →

Frequently asked questions