Robinhood chooses DIFC as MENA regional HQ after DFSA authorisation

What happened? Robinhood has received authorisation from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to introduce its retail investing platform in the Middle East from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) , which will serve as its regional headquarters. The authorisation covers trading and custody across all 10 DFSA-approved asset classes , including equities, crypto, ETFs and investment tokens.

Robinhood plans to launch its product suite in 2027 . Regional operations will be led by Salah Kaddoura as Senior Executive Officer and President of Robinhood MENA. Chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev said the DIFC move brings the company closer to a global platform that lets people anywhere own high-quality financial assets.

Why it matters A DFSA-authorised base in DIFC is a concrete step in Robinhood’s international expansion into one of the world’s fastest-growing retail-investor regions, with a full multi-asset remit rather than a crypto-only beachhead — and a named local leadership team ahead of the 2027 product launch.

Source Robinhood Newsroom, 22 October 2026: Robinhood chooses DIFC as regional headquarters. Also: DIFC announcement.