As global digital asset firms continue to flock to Dubai, one homegrown platform is proving that regional players can successfully scale from within. Bahrain-based ARP Digital, a regulated digital capital infrastructure platform, has officially received in-principle approval from VARA to provide broker-dealer services in Dubai.
The expansion comes at a time of explosive growth for the local ecosystem; Dubai’s virtual asset market surpassed an impressive AED 2.5trillion in transactions in 2025 alone.
A homegrown GCC infrastructure player
While many global firms have recently entered Dubai to gain access to the broader Middle Eastern market, ARP Digital represents a different narrative: it is a firm built by GCC founders, scaling under regional regulation.
Co-founded by Abdulaziz and Abdulla Kanoo, who are fifth-generation members of the prominent Kanoo Group, ARP Digital focuses heavily on the critical infrastructure layer of the digital economy. The platform is specifically designed to connect digital asset liquidity with local fiat rails, corporate flows, capital markets, and real-world financial activity.
Dual-framework regulation and rapid growth
With its new VARA in-principle approval in the UAE, ARP Digital becomes one of the few GCC-born digital asset firms to actively build across multiple regional regulatory frameworks. The company already holds a Category 3 Capital Markets Crypto Asset Service Provider licence issued by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
This robust regulatory footing has supported significant operational success for the firm. To date, ARP Digital has processed more than $3.5billion in volume across over 450 institutional and corporate counterparties.
Furthermore, the company recorded a massive 4x year-on-year volume growth in 2025, all while maintaining a highly reliable 99.99 per cent platform uptime. As the next stage of the GCC’s digital asset market unfolds, locally founded firms like ARP Digital are strongly positioning themselves alongside the global players entering the region.
