Middle East’s first licenced crypto exchange Rain is live
Bahrain-based cryptocurrency exchange, Rain, has acquired the crypto-asset module (CRA) licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and has closed a seed round of $2.5 million.
The round was co-lead by BitMEX Ventures and Kuwait-based cryptocurrency fund, Blockwater. Other regional participants include Vision Ventures, 500 Startups MENA, and Taibah Valley.
Rain is the first cryptocurrency exchange to earn a regulatory license in the Middle East and joins an elite group of exchanges internationally.
When Rain established contact with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) in February 2017, the team met with some of the regulator’s senior members in an information session on cryptocurrency. Soon after, Rain became the first exchange to enter the CBB’s Regulatory Sandbox Program and worked closely with the regulator for the past two years to provide recommendations from the industry’s perspective.
Fuelled by this recent permit and institutional round of funding, Rain aims to deliver easier and more reliable access to cryptocurrency across the region.
BitMEX Ventures, the investment arm of the world’s most advanced cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, builds and oversees a diverse investment portfolio of high-quality crypto and fintech companies with credible technology and innovative financial products complementary to BitMEX’s core businesses.
With this investment, it intends to help Rain in its vision of creating a top international cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Middle East.
Rain also added cryptocurrency heavyweights Jimmy Song, Mike Komarnsky (founder of Cumberland Mining), Aaron Lasher and Aaron Voisine (co-founders of BRD, formerly Breadwallet), Compound.finance, CMT Digital (worldwide commodities trading firm headquartered in Chicago), and the founding team of JMBullion (largest precious metals brokerage in the US) as investors.
Rain plans on expanding the team to meet growing customer support and engineering needs, as well as invest in new technology. Rain was founded in 2016 by four entrepreneurs Yehia Badawy, Abdullah Almoaiqel, AJ Nelson and Joseph Dallago.
