XTB openedits second Dubai office in March 2025, secured a CMA license, renewed its DFSAauthorization, and called the Gulf a long-term growth pillar. Within 12 months,Iranian strikes hit UAE soil, both Abu Dhabi and Dubai stock exchangessuspended trading for the first time in their histories, and Brent crude moved13% in a session. The expansion thesis was either well-constructed or it waspremature. What happened in early 2026 was designed, unintentionally, to findout which.Thefull interview with Achraf Drid, Branch Director at XTB MENA, is availableexclusively on FMIntelligence.Drid satdown to address that question directly, and his answers say as much about howbrokers are absorbing the Gulf shock as they do about XTB specifically. The crisisexposed a structural divide in the Dubai broker community that had been forming quietlysince 2023, between firms that kept regulatory fallback options intact andthose that surrendered them entirely for the Emirates.The Week the UAE Went DarkThe UAECapital Markets Authority halted both exchanges on March 2, with tradingresuming on March 4 under new price-limit controls. Drid described the closureas "a well-considered regulatory decision by the UAE CMA to protect marketstability," a framing consistent with the regulator's own public languageat the time. What he did not describe in detail was what the preceding 72 hourslooked like from inside a risk desk.Energy andprecious metals moved sharply throughout the closure. Gold reached $5,390 perounce, EU natural gas climbed 38% in a single session, and Hormuz disruptionfears sent oil above $82 per barrel. XTB's CFDoperations continued throughout, and Drid said the firm's risk managementprocesses "are designed to handle" that kind of volatility. He didnot say whether any negative balance protection events were triggered when oilgapped between Friday's close and Sunday's open, a specific pressure point forbrokers with concentrated energy exposure during the same period.That gapbetween what equity exchanges experienced and what derivatives desks managed isexactly what the stress test revealed: CFD infrastructure in Dubai is notsimply an equity market proxy. It is exposed to entirely different risks, andhow firms handled the Hormuz weekend will become a reference point for years.Multi-License vs. All-In:The Architecture QuestionThe crisislanded hardest on brokers that had concentrated their regulatory structureentirely in the UAE. Several firms surrendered their European licenses over thepast 18 months, drawn by the Gulf's tax environment, faster approvals, andregulator appetite for the retail sector. That decision now carries a cost thatwas not visible when conditions were stable.XTB keptits multi-jurisdictional structure intact. Drid said it "has always beencentral to how we operate" and described it as a source of resilience"when conditions change." He declinedto characterize what competitors lost by going all-in, but the implication isdirect: a firm with regulatory presence across multiple frameworks is harder tostrand by a single country's government decision. XTB's sale ofits FSCA-licensed South African unit, which had no active operations for fiveyears, shows the other side of the same logic. The firm holds licenses wherebusiness justifies them and exits where it does not, rather than concentratingexposure in a single jurisdiction.The MENAclient profile, Drid noted, already differs from XTB's European base in waysthat make the region commercially distinct: higher average deposits and highertrading frequency than European peers. Whetherthose characteristics persist "depends on macro conditions and thecontinued development of the regulatory and market infrastructure," hesaid, adding that "participation rates can fluctuate materially duringstress periods."Prop Firms Added PressureBefore the Crisis HitThegeopolitical shock arrived on top of a separate competitive development thathad been building since late 2025. Prop trading firms were already floodinginto the Gulf before February 28, drawn by return-on-ad-spend figuresthat FinanceMagnates reported can reach 12 times investment in MENA, against roughly 3times in the United States. Three firms announced GCC expansion plans from the iFX EXPO Dubaistage in February alone, days before the strikes.Drid saidXTB does not view prop firms as direct competitors, arguing the two models"serve fundamentally different client needs." He acknowledged thebroader signal, though: "The growth of prop models can be viewed as ademand signal," he said, while adding that high marketing intensity in thesector "sits outside the protections that apply to regulatedbrokerages." The long-termviability of that prop wave is itself under scrutiny, with industry data showing that asignificant share of prop firms launched in the past three years have alreadyexited. The crisis did not help them: firms without robust risk infrastructureand without regulated client protections faced the Hormuz volatility with fewertools than their licensed counterparts.Where Growth Is StillPossibleOn theregional map, Drid was selective. The UAE holds the structural advantages:regulatory clarity under both the DFSA and CMA, established infrastructure, anda client base with the deposit profile to make the economics work. Saudi Arabiahe described as "promising" but with a CFD licensing framework that"is still evolving." The firm is monitoring the market, he said,without committing to a timeline.Thatselective reading matters because it tells you something about where XTB is andis not prepared to deploy capital. The Gulf is not a single market. It is acollection of regulatory environments at different stages of maturity, and afirm running a two-million-client global target cannot afford to treat them asinterchangeable. XTB added864,286 clients globally in 2025, a 73% rise from the prior year. Chief Executive Omar Arnaout hasdescribed two millionnew clients annually as "completely realistic" within a few years, comparing the firm's ambition toAmazon's model in e-commerce.The Bet, ReassessedDrid saidMENA is "a core part of XTB's growth strategy" and has the potentialto become "one of the important contributors to our global clientacquisition." "Therecent events have reinforced the importance of providing resilient servicesfor our clients, with local leadership and strong regulatory frameworks,"he said. For a firmthat committed tothe UAE with a second office just 12 months ago, that is precisely what it needed the crisisto confirm. Whether the infrastructure held up as well as the conviction is aquestion the industry is still answering.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.