Robinhood secures Dubai licence for crypto and stock trading from 2027
Robinhood Markets has received authorisation from the Dubai Financial Services Authority to offer retail trading and custody across ten asset classes, including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, equities, exchange-traded funds and investment tokens, the company said in a statement. The platform is due to go live in the region in 2027 from a new hub in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which will serve as its Middle East and North Africa headquarters.
The licence covers custody of client digital assets as well as trade routing, a broader remit than a brokerage-only approval. Salah Kaddoura has been named senior executive officer and president of Robinhood MENA, a DFSA-recognised role that makes him the firm's principal point of contact with the regulator; he will build the Dubai team ahead of launch. Vlad Tenev, Robinhood's chairman and chief executive, said the DIFC is one of the world's most important financial hubs and that the expansion brings the company closer to a global platform.
The move extends a run of growth outside the United States, where the app built its following among younger retail investors. Robinhood entered the UK in 2024, opened full operations in the European Union last year, received in-principle approval for brokerage services in Singapore in April and completed its purchase of Canadian crypto platform WonderFi in June. The company says it has more than one million customers outside the US. Johann Kerbrat, who leads crypto and international operations, disclosed on 7 October that Robinhood had placed $25 million of bitcoin on its own balance sheet, the first time it held the asset as a corporate investment rather than on behalf of customers.
Dubai's financial centre has continued to attract global firms despite regional tension. The DIFC passed 10,000 active registered firms this year and in March opened new towers with 600,000 square feet of commercial space, with Deutsche Bank and Moody's among the tenants, according to Bloomberg. Competition for brokerage business is substantial: the DIFC listed 72 authorised brokerages as of 31 March, and several crypto-native exchanges hold licences from Dubai's separate Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
Robinhood has not said which countries it will serve at launch, how it will price its services, or how it will define eligible investors, a question that will determine the size of its addressable market.
