Robinhood Wins Dubai DFSA License, Plans 2027 Middle East Launch From DIFC Hub
Published October 23, 2026, 12:05 AM PKT. Based on Robinhood Markets newsroom announcement, October 22, 2026 (primary source), and reporting by Bitcoin Magazine, TradingView (FinanceMagnates), Gulf Business and Cryptopolitan on October 22, 2026 (secondary sources).
Robinhood is coming to the Middle East, and this time the paperwork is done before the product. Robinhood Markets said on October 22, 2026 that it has received authorization from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to introduce its retail investing platform in the Middle East from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), according to its own newsroom announcement. The DIFC will serve as the company's regional headquarters for the Middle East and North Africa, and Robinhood plans to launch its product suite in 2027. That sequence matters for readers in the region: the license is real, the launch date is next year, and no one can open an account through the new Dubai entity today on the strength of this announcement alone.
The DFSA authorization and the 10 asset classes
The authorization is broad, and its breadth is the story. The DFSA authorization will allow Robinhood to offer access to trading and custody across all 10 DFSA-approved asset classes, including equities, crypto, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and investment tokens, according to Robinhood. Bitcoin Magazine, reporting the same announcement, put it more directly for crypto readers: Robinhood has received authorization to offer retail trading and custody across 10 asset classes, including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, equities, ETFs and investment tokens. Custody is the detail worth pausing on, because it means the DFSA has signed off on Robinhood holding client digital assets in the new jurisdiction, not only routing trades, according to Bitcoin Magazine. Investment tokens are also a category Robinhood already sells outside the United States, and TradingView reported that 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. Robinhood has not said which of the 10 classes will be available on day one in Dubai, and that gap between permission and product is the first thing to watch as 2027 approaches.
The DIFC hub and the team running it
Robinhood is not opening a sales office and calling it expansion. It is putting its regional headquarters in the DIFC, a special economic zone within Dubai that functions as a financial centre, and it has named the executive who will run it. Salah Kaddoura has been named senior executive officer and president of Robinhood MENA, according to Robinhood and Bitcoin Magazine, a DFSA-recognized role that makes him the person regulators will call, and he will build out the Dubai team ahead of launch. Robinhood chairman and chief executive Vlad Tenev said in the company statement that the DIFC is one of the world's most important financial hubs, and that expansion there brings Robinhood closer to building a global platform that enables anyone, anywhere to own the highest quality financial assets. Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto and International, said the DIFC has quickly become one of the world's most dynamic centres for financial innovation, situated at the heart of a rapidly growing wave of retail investors across the MENA region. His Excellency Arif Amiri, chief executive officer of DIFC Authority, said Robinhood's decision to establish its regional headquarters in DIFC reinforces Dubai's position as a global hub for financial innovation and reflects growing demand for accessible, technology-driven investment services across the Middle East. Kaddoura himself said demand for modern, accessible financial tools across the region is immense, and that from its new home in Dubai's premier financial hub, Robinhood looks forward to expanding access to the global financial ecosystem for a new generation of investors.
Singapore, Canada, and the 2026 expansion run
Dubai does not arrive in isolation. It is the third leg of a 2026 international run that Robinhood has been building all year, according to TradingView and Bitcoin Magazine. Robinhood entered the United Kingdom in 2024 and opened full operations in the European Union last year, according to Bitcoin Magazine. In April 2026 it named Singapore its Asia-Pacific headquarters after receiving in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, an approval that is not yet a license, according to TradingView. In June 2026 it closed its purchase of Canadian crypto platform WonderFi, which brought it the Bitbuy and Coinsquare crypto exchanges, and the company said at the time that it served more than 1 million funded customers outside the United States, according to TradingView. At home, it added weekend trading and perpetual futures in September, according to Bitcoin Magazine. Kerbrat is also the executive who disclosed on October 7 that Robinhood had put $25 million of bitcoin on its own balance sheet, the first time the firm held bitcoin as a corporate asset rather than on behalf of customers, according to Bitcoin Magazine. Read together, the pattern is a retail broker that is no longer testing international waters, it is planting headquarters in them, one regulator at a time.
A crowded Dubai field, and a rival move in reverse
Robinhood will not be lonely in Dubai, and the competition frames how big this launch can be. 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 and cited by TradingView. Older entrants include eToro, which obtained a full license in Abu Dhabi in November 2023 to act as a broker in securities, derivatives and crypto assets, according to TradingView, and Interactive Brokers in 2024, according to Cryptopolitan. More recent arrivals include Revolut, which earned in-principle approval from Dubai's separate Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in July, and local app Baraka in September, according to Cryptopolitan. Cryptopolitan also reported that the Dubai news landed as Dubai-based Bybit is planning a move in the opposite direction, toward a United States broker deal, a reminder that the traffic between Gulf crypto hubs and American retail platforms now runs both ways. As of July, Robinhood counted close to 28 million customers across 38 countries, according to its own global expansion update cited by Cryptopolitan, a scale that makes its Dubai launch a distribution play, not a startup bet.
What Robinhood has not announced yet
The announcement leaves the questions that decide the size of the opportunity unanswered, and readers should hold Robinhood to them. Robinhood has not said which countries will be served at launch, what pricing will look like, or how eligible investors will be defined, according to Bitcoin Magazine, and that last point will decide the size of the addressable market. It has not specified initial products, fees or eligible countries either, according to Coinscreamer, which also notes that the announcement establishes the base and the intended timetable, but does not mean customers across the Middle East can already open accounts or trade through the new service. The 2027 launch window gives Robinhood months to answer those questions, hire the local team under Kaddoura, and convert a regulatory authorization into a live product. Until then, the honest summary is narrow and strong at the same time: a major American retail broker has cleared Dubai's regulator, chosen the DIFC as its Middle East headquarters, and committed to a 2027 launch across equities, crypto, ETFs and investment tokens, with the details that matter most still to come.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- Robinhood Markets newsroom, Robinhood chooses DIFC as regional headquarters to drive Middle East expansion (October 22, 2026), primary source
- Bitcoin Magazine, Robinhood Wins Dubai License For Bitcoin, Stock Trading (October 22, 2026), secondary source
- TradingView (FinanceMagnates), Robinhood Gets Dubai License, Plans 2027 Middle East Launch (October 22, 2026), secondary source
- Gulf Business, Robinhood receives Dubai licence to launch retail investing platform (October 22, 2026), secondary source
- Cryptopolitan, Robinhood wins Dubai license as Bybit eyes a US broker deal (October 22, 2026), secondary source
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