Banking & Finance US crypto exchange Kraken shuts Abu Dhabi office By Reuters February 3, 2023 Creative Commons FTX's fall has set the dominoes falling across the industry, with several major companies having filed for bankruptcy protection Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has shut its Abu Dhabi office less than a year after securing a license in the region, a spokesperson said, as the company seeks to sharpen its focus after FTX’s bankruptcy shook the digital assets sector. The US-based company had said last year it would reduce its workforce by 30 percent, or about 1,100 employees, as rising rates and worries of an economic downturn soured the sentiment on crypto. FTX’s fall has also set the dominoes falling across the industry, with several major companies having filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months. Kraken’s move was first reported by Bloomberg News. In December, Kraken also said it would cease operations in Japan, citing market conditions in the country and a weak crypto market globally. Earlier this month, Binance reported a 34 percent rise in the number of new Middle East and North Africa institutional investors adopting its cryptocurrency technology during the last quarter of 2022, the highest growth of all regions. The world’s largest crypto exchange attributed the results to strong appetite for digital banking and financial solutions in the region, AGBI reported. This was aided by government initiatives such as the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which targets $4 billion of extra gross domestic product from technology and Web3-based business by 2030.
