Robinhood Markets has received approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to offer its investing app in the Middle East, the company said today (Thursday). It plans to launch in 2027.
The US broker will be based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), its new regional headquarters. The authorization covers trading and custody in all 10 asset classes the DFSA permits, Robinhood said.
Those include equities, crypto, exchange-traded funds and investment tokens. Salah Kaddoura, senior executive officer and president of Robinhood MENA, will run the local team.
London’s trading industry is coming home!
Robinhood joins a free zone that has drawn a steady flow of brokers. The DIFC counted 72 authorized brokerage firms as of March 31, 2026, up from 49 in 2022, according to DFSA figures compiled by FM Intelligence.
Singapore, Canada and Now Dubai
Dubai follows Singapore, which Robinhood named its Asia-Pacific headquarters in April after it received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The approval is not yet a license.
In June it closed the WonderFi acquisition, which brought it the Bitbuy and Coinsquare crypto exchanges in Canada. The company said at the time that it served more than 1 million funded customers outside the US.
“The DIFC is one of the world’s most important financial hubs,” Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Investment tokens, one of the categories on the DFSA list, are a product Robinhood already sells outside the US. Trading in its stock tokens reached $15 billion in the first 100 days of its own blockchain, according to figures attributed to the company this month.
Rivals Licensed in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
eToro obtained a full license in Abu Dhabi in November 2023 to act as a broker in securities, derivatives and crypto assets.
Interactive Brokers opened a DIFC office in 2024 and added stocks listed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last December.
Local competition is also on the DFSA register. Baraka, a DIFC-based app, began offering shares listed on the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in September, funded in dirhams, alongside US stocks.
Revolut is moving into the same customer base from the crypto side. It received in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in July for broker-dealer and exchange services, subject to final approval.
“The demand for modern, accessible financial tools across this region is immense,” Kaddoura said.
Several CFD brokers have chosen the mainland instead. XTB moved up to Category 1 and 2 licenses from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), whose framework lets brokers market to retail clients in all seven emirates.
Measured by web traffic, the region remains a small slice of retail trading interest. The Middle East and North Africa drew 4.1% of organic visits to retail FX and CFD broker websites in the third quarter of 2026, FM Intelligence’s heat map shows, against 42% for Europe.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.FinTechRead More
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