CoinMENA

CoinMENA B.S.C. (c) was a Central Bank of Bahrain-licensed digital-asset exchange headquartered in Manama, Bahrain (with a Dubai entity, CoinMENA FZE, licensed separately by VARA for UAE operations), letting MENA retail investors buy, sell, send and receive crypto and deposit/withdraw in local currency across eight regional currencies plus USD, serving a reported 1.5M+ users in 45+ countries. Co-founded by Talal Tabbaa, Dina Sam'an and Yazan Barghuthi, it raised a $9.5M seed round in November 2021 led by Arab Bank Switzerland. On 4-5 December 2025, Turkish exchange Paribu announced it had acquired CoinMENA in a transaction valued at up to $240 million — Türkiye's largest fintech transaction to date and its first cross-border digital-asset acquisition. CoinDesk reported that, immediately post-announcement, 'users of both platforms will see no change to operations,' but CoinMENA is now a Paribu subsidiary rather than an independent company.