Bahrain Approves Binance’s First Crypto Venture in the Middle East

Binance Holdings Ltd. has been appointed as a crypto-asset service provider in Bahrain after the country’s central bank gave the firm the green signal.

However, the company still has to finish the application process for the same which will be done “in due course”, according to an email by CEO Changpeng Zhao addressed to Bloomberg News.

If this move comes into fruition, it would mark Binance’s first ever entry into the Middle Eastern market. In the email, Zhao has also expressed his gratitude for “the support from the Central Bank of Bahrain and the broader Bahraini ecosystem during the process.”

Abdulla Haji, the Director of Licensing at the Central Bank of Bahrain, has praised the country as “the perfect place” for Binance Holdings to establish its regional headquarters at. This has marked Bahrain as one of the Middle East’s first embracers of digital money.

According to Bloomberg, Binance has also been negotiating of late with authorities in the United Arab Emirates to install their headquarters in the country as it attempts to broaden its reach in the Middle East-North African region.