Robinhood, the US-based trading platform, has announced it will headquarter its Middle East operations at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and plans to roll out its services across the region starting in 2027. The company secured regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), covering all ten asset classes the regulator permits, including equities, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and investment tokens.
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 its goal of building a global trading platform. Salah Kaddoura, senior executive officer and president of Robinhood Mena, added that the firm's arrival would widen retail investors' access to the market.
The move comes as DIFC posted record growth in the number of firms setting up in the first half of this year, even as regional tensions created uncertainty. Dubai has spent recent years streamlining regulations and issuing specialised licences for fintech and digital-asset firms, drawing a string of major platforms to the emirate.
Robinhood's entry adds a new competitor to the region's brokerage landscape, alongside local and international players already licensed in the DIFC, and could put downward pressure on trading costs for retail investors. The company has not yet disclosed the exact launch date or which products will be offered first, saying further details will follow in the coming months.