Middle Eastern crypto exchange Rain said on Tuesday its Abu Dhabi unit obtained a license to operate a virtual assets brokerage and custody service for clients in the United Arab Emirates.
The Bahrain-headquartered Rain, backed by Coinbase, said its entity based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market financial freezone will now offer institutional clients and some retail clients in the UAE the ability to buy, sell and store virtual assets.
Rain will also be able to open a bank account in the UAE, and allow clients in the country to fund their own accounts when using the local payment network, co-founder Yehia Badawy said in an interview on Tuesday.
Local asset managers have been hesitant to work with crypto firms without a domestic licence, he continued, adding they will now feel more comfortable after it obtained regulatory approval.
“We can capture more demand from institutional investors using this licence,” he said.
Rain was founded in 2017 by Badawy and three others, and backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and Coinbase Ventures.
It raised $110 million (roughly Rs. 900 crore) last year in a Series B funding round that valued the firm at $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,100 crore). Rain, which has units registered in Bahrain and Turkey, said it would use the proceeds for regional expansion.
The UAE has been trying to attract some of the world’s biggest crypto firms. It has been quick to enable payments via cryptocurrencies in areas like real estate and school fees, spurring rates of adoption and transaction volumes.
It has also been trying to develop virtual asset regulation to attract new forms of business as economic competition heats up in the Gulf region.
The world’s largest exchange, Binance, is based in the country. Another exchange, Gemini, is expected to operate there soon.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Will the Nothing Phone 2 serve as the successor to the Phone 1, or will the two co-exist? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
