According to Bloomberg, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has gotten preliminary clearance from the Central Bank of Bahrain to be the Gulf country’s service provider of crypto assets.
Binance still needs to finish an application procedure, CEO Changpeng Zhao said Bloomberg News in an email.
If successful, this will be the bitcoin exchange’s first regulatory clearance in the Middle East and North Africa. Binance is increasing its regional footprint as executives plan to establish prospective offices in the Gulf nations.
Bahrain has been one of the Middle East’s early adopters of digital assets. The Gulf’s smallest economy approved the first licensed crypto-asset platform in the region, Rain Financial, in 2019, and granted another license to Manama-based CoinMENA earlier this year.
