Cryptocurrency platform Rain has received in-principle approval for financial services permission (FSP) from Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGB), which if it is fully approved will allow it to operate beyond the GCC region and offer a greater number of virtual asset pairs.

The in-principle approval was granted by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to Rain Financial Group’s ADGM registered entity Rain Trading Limited.

The company announced $110 million in Series B funding last week.

“Once Rain has satisfied all IPA conditions and receives its FSP, Rain will be able to offer its services to customers outside the GCC region, as well as the currently-serviced GCC region,” the company said in a statement. “In addition to servicing a broader range of customers, the FSP from the ADGM FSRA will enable Rain to list a greater number of virtual asset pairs provided they meet the Accepted Virtual Assets criteria set out by the FSRA,” it said.

Rain co-founder Yehia Badawy said: "Working with regulatory bodies such as the FSRA is one of the fastest and most secure ways to offer cryptocurrencies to the region and benefits both customers and governmental bodies alike. We look forward to working hard to fulfil all IPA conditions to the satisfaction of the FSRA in order to obtain the FSP to operate.”

Rain was founded in 2017 by Abdullah Almoaiqel, AJ Nelson, Joseph Dallago, and Yehia Badawy.

Rain currently has subsidiaries in various jurisdictions, including Bahrain, Turkey and UAE.

Rain Financial Inc.’s subsidiary, Rain Management, based in Bahrain, became the first licenced crypto-asset service provider in the Middle East in 2019 by the Central Bank of Bahrain. 

Rain Management announced it had crossed $1 billion in trades in June 2021.

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

imogen.lillywhite@lseg.com

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