Dubai to accept crypto as payment for government services

Dubai will soon allow residents to pay for government services using cryptocurrencies, as part of its push to make the emirate a global leader in digital commerce.

The initiative follows a new agreement between Dubai Finance and global platform Crypto.com, aiming to create a secure and efficient payment channel across government platforms using stablecoins.

It aligns with the emirate’s ambition to become a fully digital, cashless society and strengthen its position as a hub for financial innovation.

The move also supports the emirate’s D33 agenda, which targets sustainable economic diversification and digital transformation.

Exploding Bitcoin puts Gulf on course to crypto epicenter

Amid the explosive performance of cryptocurrencies this year – with Bitcoin breaking the $100,000 ceiling last week – investors are buckling up for what looks to be a wild ride in 2025.

Eric Trump was greeted with hoots and hollers when he took the stage at December’s Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu Dhabi and promised that his dad will be “most pro-crypto president in the history of America.”

The event coincided with an announcement from the UAE’s Central Bank that it will issue the AE Coin, a so-called stablecoin that will be subject to government regulation to assure its trustworthiness as a digital currency.

After opening the year at $44,204, Bitcoin has soared more than 130%, hitting an all-time high on Tuesday of $107,778 – before slipping yesterday to $94,569 and illustrating crypto’s unpredictability.

In an interview with The Circuit, Tim Popplewell, owner and CEO of Dubai-based Scintilla Network, talks about his investment firm’s crypto strategy, the critical role of regulation in building trust and how the Gulf is poised to lead the next chapter in digital innovation.

Where do you think the UAE is headed in addressing Crypto?

One of the key aspects of cryptocurrencies and digital assets is regulation, and that’s crucial. Generally speaking, there have been some not-so-great stories in recent years, with people paying heavy prices, including prison time.

The UAE, and the Middle East more broadly, has been fantastic in taking the lead. They’ve gone from having little to no framework to establishing authorities like VARA – the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority – here in Dubai, which is truly leading the world. And I don’t think it’s just me saying that from Dubai. I travel enough to know that this is a widely held opinion in the industry regarding regulation in this space.

With solid regulation comes bigger players. Once the major players realize it’s safe to operate here, they start moving in. You saw it at the [Bitcoin MENA event]. The caliber of international players coming to this region is precisely the kind you want to attract. Regardless of your political views, having Eric Trump speak about crypto is a significant endorsement. Bitcoin MENA is the region’s first event of this kind, and for its debut, it attracted someone of that stature. That speaks volumes about the importance of this space in the region.

As for trends, it’s completely inevitable that digital assets and currencies are the future. Just this [month], we’ve seen leaders from Russia, China, the US, Europe, Britain, and others all make statements in favor of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, central bank digital currencies, or stablecoins. The direction is clear – this is unstoppable.

You also have influential figures like Michael Saylor, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and many others backing this movement. The trajectory is inevitable; it’s just a matter of what form it will take.

How is digital currency used here in the MENA region?

The MENA region started off behind but is now moving ahead very quickly. One example is the use of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). That is an area where the Middle East region has really taken a bit of a lead. A CBDC is a digital currency issued by central banks. In this region, for large oil transactions, CBDCs help cut out middlemen, reduce fees, and speed up transaction times. Another key advantage is that once a transaction happens, it cannot be reversed or disappear — it’s immutable. It is impossible for it to disappear. It is impossible for funds to go missing. 

CBDCs also help legitimize trade in the region. A few years ago, there was still skepticism about whether the Middle East could play a significant role in global finance. Now, digital currencies are helping change that perception. For example, at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, the slogan was “The Capital of Capital,” and no one questions that anymore. I think digital currencies have played a role in that.

What is happening in the UAE regarding digital currency, especially with the recent stablecoin announcement?

At one end of the spectrum, you have central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). These are essentially the digital version of what central banks currently do when they print money, backed fully by the government. At the other end, you have cryptocurrencies, which aren’t backed by anything tangible—only by market sentiment. In the middle, you have stablecoins. The idea behind a stablecoin is that it’s backed by actual assets. For example, the recently announced AE Coin, a new stablecoin for the UAE, is backed by dirhams and other assets. If you buy one dirham worth of stablecoin, it’s fully supported by an equivalent dirham in reserve, ensuring its stability and security.

Can we predict what’s going to happen in the next 5 to 10 years?

In terms of major cryptocurrencies, I think their growth is somewhat inevitable. Far be it from me to make a price prediction, but if you were to ask whether Bitcoin, for example, will be higher in five years than it is today, I’d say it’s almost inevitable. I really can’t see any reasons for that not happening.

The real fascination lies in the interplay between CBDCs, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies over the next five years. How these entities interact will be key. If you look at CBDCs, on one hand, they offer benefits like cutting costs and reducing transaction times. On the other hand, they bring concerns about government surveillance and tracking how people spend their money. It’s a two-sided story, and I don’t know how it will play out, but it will definitely be fascinating to watch.

Stablecoins, again, seem inevitable. They’re clearly the way of the future, and I don’t think there’s much doubt about that. Cryptocurrencies, however, are more complex. Right now, there are millions of them, and I think we’ll see a split. The larger cryptocurrencies that can be traded in regulated spaces will grow stronger because people trust them. They’re not going to experience “pump and dump” schemes or other risks that jeopardize their money. Then there’s the speculative, “Wild West” side—meme coins and unregulated cryptocurrencies. They’ll continue to exist outside regulation, but good luck to anyone investing in those. They won’t disappear entirely, but the space will split: regulated cryptocurrencies will attract most players, while unregulated ones will remain high-risk.

How do you advise your clients to ensure their investments are secure in crypto?

We are in an interesting position because we are regulated by VARA and we were incubated within a global law firm. So, we saw this coming years ago – the Wild West phase would eventually end, and regulation would become the only way for people like yourself to feel comfortable putting your hard-earned money into this space, whether as an investment or as a way of paying bills.

This ties back to what I mentioned earlier about the importance of regulated players. For example, we’re regulated for exchange services. This means that when you put your money with a regulated provider like us, you can trust that it’s safe. We have to abide by VARA’s regulations, which allow us to do certain things but also prevent us from engaging in others. That’s the direction this space is heading.

On the other hand, if you put your money into a meme coin just because some influencer or KOL (Key Opinion Leader) thinks it’s funny or trendy, well, good luck. Those coins aren’t regulated, and unfortunately, when things go south – and it really is “when,” not “if” – it’s a case of “buyer beware.”

I think we’re going to see a clear shift toward quality, and that quality will revolve around regulated providers.

Eric Trump to deliver keynote at Abu Dhabi crypto conference

This week’s Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu Dhabi will showcase some of the key cryptocurrency players in the incoming Trump administration, including the President-elect’s son Eric, who will deliver the keynote to a crowd of 6,000 at the ADNEC center.

Also speaking at the Gulf’s biggest crypto gathering is billionaire Steve Witkoff, who has been appointed the new White House envoy for the Middle East, Reuters reports. Witkoff is co-founder of World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency platform launched in September that Donald Trump and his family helped form.

Both Trump and Witkoff will be holding “whales-only” chats in the conference’s VIP lounge, where admission requires a $9,999 pass for whales, the crypto nickname for large players who have potential to move markets, the news agency said.

Other speakers with close ties to World Liberty Financial include Justin Sun, the 32-year-old Chinese founder of blockchain platform Tron, Reuters reports.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served a four-month U.S. prison sentence this year for crypto-connected money-laundering law violations, will also hold a whale session at the conference.

Morocco preparing to lift seven-year ban on cryptocurrencies

Morocco, which has banned cryptocurrencies since 2017, is preparing a law to allow their use, Central Bank Governor Abdellatif Jouahri said.

“Like many countries around the world, we are exploring to what extent this new form of currency could contribute to achieving certain public policy objectives, particularly in terms of financial inclusion,” Jouahri said Tuesday at the Regional High-Level Symposium on Financial Stability in Rabat.

Bank Al Maghrib, as the Central Bank is known, is also exploring the possibility of issuing its own digital currency, he said.

Moroccan law forbids cryptocurrencies, but their broad use is well-known as citizens find ways to bypass the restrictions. 

Oman bets big on cryptocurrency mining despite Bitcoin’s volatility

For the last two years, the market value of Bitcoin has been on a rollercoaster ride, the volatility leading institutional investors and regulators to question the cryptocurrency’s long-term viability. 

But look to the Gulf countries and a different story is taking shape: the United Arab Emirates and Oman are looking seriously at regulating digital assets while crypto firms are flocking to Dubai to set up shop. Oman, for its part, is betting big on cryptocurrency mining. Observers say a cooler climate in Salalah, in the south, compared to elsewhere in the desert nation, as well as business-friendly regulation and cheap energy could help it succeed. 

In August, the oil-rich country announced close to $800 million in investments in crypto-mining operations, including $300 million with Abu Dhabi-based Phoenix Group to develop a 150-megawatt crypto-mining farm with Green Data City, Oman’s first licensed crypto-mining entity, slated to go online next year. Weeks earlier, Muscat approved a $370 million farm operated by Exahertz International.

Oman is looking to diversify beyond fossil fuel revenues under its “Vision 2040” economic agenda, which focuses on the buildout of modern energy and telecommunication infrastructure that aims to attract foreign investment and create knowledge-worker jobs. 

“Crypto might be uniquely suited to Oman’s policy style to diversify its trading partners and sources of non-hydrocarbon income,” Sam Blatteis, CEO and co-founder of the MENA Catalysts, a government relations firm for tech companies, told The Circuit. 

Over the last decade, crypto mining has gone from a basement-type operation distributed over individual computers to large centralized mining pools that require large capital investment and sophisticated machines to solve ever-harder-to-attain matches to cryptographic solutions. 

This is energy-intensive work.

Oman offers some of the cheapest electricity in the world, costing only around 5 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to 23 cents in the U.S. This significantly lowers the operational costs for crypto mining. A medium-sized crypto-mining operation in Oman could save millions of dollars in electricity costs compared to operating in the U.S., which is home to over a third of all crypto mining globally. 

The move will not be without controversy as crypto mining is often derided for not being environmentally friendly. Bitcoin mining generates 21 to 53 million tons of carbon per year, according to an analysis by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sheikh Mansour Bin Taleb Bin Ali Al Hinai, chairman of Oman’s Authority for Public Services Regulations, commented in a press statement about his government’s support of Bitcoin mining facilities: “This initiative aligns with our goal to diversify our economy, integrating modern technologies while upholding our commitment to ethical and sustainable practices.” 

The country is aiming for at least a third of energy production to be from renewable sources by 2030. 

But energy isn’t the only focus. Stability matters, too, according to those who have chosen to do business in Oman.

“In previous years, the mining industry was only focused on finding the lowest prices of electricity, and this led to disasters in unstable countries like China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Paraguay,” Olivier Ohnheiser, CEO of Green Data City in Muscat, told The Circuit.

“Even the U.S. is threatening the mining industry with taxes and higher electricity prices in the next few years. So, now, with the consolidation of the industry under publicly listed mega-miners, the priority is stability. Most miners prefer to have 50% of their operations as a maximum in the U.S., and 50% diversified elsewhere. Oman is one of the best places, if not the best place, for that.

“Oman offers long-term stability and fixed prices of electricity in the long run,” Ohnheiser continued. “The country is stable and is known to respect its commitments.”

Jad Kharma, CEO of Exahertz, the other crypto mining operator with an Omani license, agrees. 

“This is Switzerland of the Middle East,” he said of government stability. “I felt safer as a foreign investor to put my hands in the hands of the people that are shaping the future for the country” than in other countries in the region.

Plus, Kharma likes the quality of life in Salalah, the microclimate in southern Oman where the crypto mining takes place. It’s often many degrees cooler than elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf: an actual oasis. 

The oasis has Jaran Mellerud’s attention. An associate at Luxor, a Seattle -based company that develops crypto-mining technologies, he traveled to the UAE and Oman over the summer to check out the mining operations underway and evaluate if either country has the potential to take up significant market share in the near future. 

“Bitcoin mining is a very simple way of monetizing excess electricity,” he told The Circuit. “If there is a place that has a lot of excess electricity, but has no other way of quickly putting it to use, Bitcoin mining is a very efficient way of attracting investment into that area, for example in southern Oman, with all this excess electricity.” 

Oman has the advantage in the region for other reasons other than an excess of cheap energy. Solid government support and a relatively cooler climate are other main drivers. 

“The only way to mine Bitcoin in a scalable and legally sustainable way in Oman is by closely cooperating with the government. Miners need licenses and are also expected to provide significant benefits to the community. In return, they get tax benefits and access to loads of competitively priced electricity.”

Mellerud predicts that Oman will become an increasingly important destination for Bitcoin over the next couple of years and could, together with the UAE, take the Middle East’s total share of the Bitcoin mining network to above 15%.

UAE set to become a global hub for NFTs and crypto

The United Arab Emirates has long been considered a desirable destination for doing business. Now, the Gulf nation appears poised to become a global hub in the burgeoning — but controversial — field of cryptocurrency. As more and more countries seek to ban or impose strict regulatory measures on cryptocurrency, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, the Chinese company Binance, is going all-in on the UAE. At the same time, a surge in the buying, selling and creation of digital assets called NFTs — or Non-Fungible Tokens — is also taking place in the UAE.

“The good news about the UAE is that they are welcoming this new technology versus places like America and China — America’s and China’s loss is the UAE’s gain,” Jamil Abu-Wardeh, director and co-founder of METKAF.com, a crypto learn-and-launch company in the UAE, told The Circuit. “The UAE has realized that you need to have the right people and technology in place to make this something you can monitor.”

At the end of December 2021, Binance struck an agreement with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTCA), which is in the process of establishing an international virtual asset ecosystem. With the deal, Binance became one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to join DWTCA’s new crypto center, which according to bitcoin.com, is set out to become a “comprehensive ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and providers of related services.” In its announcement, Binance said “it believes that Dubai’s new agenda will contribute to the growth of the global economy” and that through the agreement it would help advance “Dubai’s commitment to establishing a new international Virtual Asset ecosystem that will generate long-term economic growth through digital innovation.” 

Binance founder and chief executive Changpeng Zhao, photographed on July 12, 2021. (Singapore Press via AP Images)

On Dec. 21, 2021, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, tweeted just one word — “Dubai” — after the company had signed the agreement with DWTCA. With a new worth of $96 billion, Zhao — also known as CZ — rivals tech titans such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Larry Page, and is banking a lot on Dubai.

In November, Zhao bought his first home in Dubai in a show of support for a city he has described as “very pro crypto.” In December, Bloomberg reported that Binance was in talks with Dubai and Abu Dhabi with officials from the special economic zones Abu Dhabi Global Market, Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Multi Commodities Centre about its plans in the Gulf nation. 

A potential Binance headquarters in Dubai signals much about the booming crypto scene in Dubai, especially as it continues to face global regulatory pressure. Founded in China in 2017, Binance is striving to establish itself as a regulated and mature finance institution. Despite recent crackdowns by regulators across the globe, trading volumes at Binance soared between July and August, suggesting that it had little impact on the platform’s business.

While many countries have moved to ban the use of Bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets, UAE regulators have taken a different approach by pushing forward its vision to become a blockchain capital via specific frameworks designed to guide crypto businesses on how to operate within the Gulf nation’s laws.

“Binance controls 70 percent of crypto transactions, and the fact that it is being headquartered in the UAE is further proof of how the UAE is becoming a capital for crypto and digital assets,” said Abu-Wardeh.

As interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies grows globally, it is increasing exponentially in the UAE as the global economy shifts to include less traditional modes of money transactions, such as digital wallets, that can hold both fiat currency and cryptocurrency. 

In May 2021, the DMCC Crypto Centre launched to promote cryptographic and blockchain technologies in Dubai. It is now home to over 100 organizations operating in the crypto space, with a further 900 having applied for licenses. There are more than 400 crypto businesses now operating in the UAE. 

Within the UAE’s welcome arms to crypto, a surge in the buying, selling and creation of NFTs is also taking place. NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. However, unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency because they are unique representations of real-world assets.

NFTs exploded onto the art scene in February 2021, when artist Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold his first NFT artwork at Christie’s auction for $69.4 million.

In November 2021, the percentage of people who own a non-fungible token (NFT) in the UAE was more than double the global average, according to a survey of 28,000 people conducted by finder.com.

According to the survey, which polled 1,004 people in the country, 23 percent of people in the UAE own at least one NFT. The average rate of NFT ownership around the world was found to be 11.7 percent. The UAE is ranked fourth-highest on the list, behind the Philippines (32 percent), Thailand (27 percent), and Malaysia (24 percent). After the UAE, Vietnam had 17 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, Japan had the smallest at two percent, followed by the U.K. and the U.S. with three percent, Germany at four percent, Australia and Canada at five percent. 

“I feel like the new generation coming out of school feels like they can’t play in the normal industries: banking, legal,” Liontree founder and CEO Aryeh Bourkoff said on a recent episode of Boardroom’s “Out of Office” podcast. “ Like, what’s the point of going through the normal school system? What’s the point of going through the normal banking programs, going into the stock market? Ten percent of people own 90% of stocks. And they’re thinking, what’s the point of entering a race that’s already been won? That is informing the mindset of creating NFTs: a new asset class; crypto: a new currency; Metaverse: a new internet world. It’s not just innovation, it’s creating new worlds.”

For the UAE’s 50th birthday celebrations last month, the country’s postal operator issued NFT stamps to celebrate the federation’s National Day.

Dubai Culture has also ventured into NFT art with its latest exhibition — a collaboration with NFT curatorial platform MORROW, which opened on Jan. 15 at the Al Safa Art and Design Library. Titled “50/50” to mark the UAE’s 50th anniversary, the exhibition includes works by Gigi Gorlova, Khalid Al Banna, Alia Al Gaoud, Dalal Ahmed and Marwan Shakarchi. 

“We founded MORROW in March 2021,” said co-founder and artist Jen Stelco, who was introduced to NFTs last year. “Just under a year ago, gallerists and traditional artists were hearing a little bit about NFTs, and it was scary.”

At the time, it seemed an individual had to either be a traditionalist or into NFTs — you couldn’t be both. It also seemed like there was no room for art galleries in the NFT sphere, as NFT artists upload their work onto virtual platforms, leaving no need for it to be exhibited physically. 

“Galleries were not on board with NFTs, but we love galleries, so we sought to find a way to bring galleries into NFTs by building a platform that is for galleries,” explains Stelco. 

Stelco and her co-founder Anna Seaman co-curated their first NFT exhibition for the digital art marketplace SuperRare in February 2021 called “Orchestra of Crickets.” 

“This was arguably the birth of the MORROW idea,” added Stelco. “It worked, and so we decided to go ahead.”

Also jumping on the digital art-cum-NFT bandwagon is Art Dubai. For the art fair’s upcoming 15th edition in March, it launched a new digital art section examining the context from which NFTs, cryptocurrency, video art, and virtual reality developed since the beginnings of digital art in the 1980s. 

“There is a thriving crypto scene in the UAE,” said Chris Fussner, curator of the new section and a web3 specialist and director of Tropical Futures Institute, a leading design strategy studio in Cebu, Philippines. that elevates early stage artists and web3 tech startups. “The main reason is mostly due to macro forces. By being so agile with their policy, especially in today’s world, the UAE government has looked at web3, blockchain and crypto as a good bet for taking on the future. Dubai is a forward-facing city and it has to look towards the future in order to remain competitive in today’s global landscape.”

An exhibition view of “50/50” by MORROW Collective at Al Safa Art and Design Library in Dubai, UAE. (Photo: Jen Stelco) 

Art Dubai’s new section will include a dedicated gallery section featuring international platforms working with NFTs as well as those that have been working with digital art since the 1980s. It will also include a space introducing visitors to the main players in the digital world, with explanations of where to buy bitcoin and trade in crypto, among other activities.

The latest and perhaps most symbolic representation of the UAE’s NFT boom comes in the form of the historic Pontifex carpet woven by Afghan women and gifted by Sheikh Mohamad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to Pope Francis in September 2016 during a visit to the Vatican. The two leaders met to discuss the strengthening of existing diplomatic ties and the promotion of inter-religious harmony and tolerance. The Fatima Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative (FMBI) has replicated the physical version of the carpet to be gifted to whomever buys it as an NFT. 

It was sold on Jan. 14 for 300,000dhs ($82,000 USD). The MORROW collective helped create the NFT in collaboration with Zuleya, and sold the NFT through the NFTone platform.

The new owner will receive the physical replica of the carpet and an ornate gold frame on a 165-centimeter digital canvas with the NFT loaded onto it. The money will go to aid vulnerable families in Afghanistan. The charity sale of the carpet is in itself an expression of the UAE’s new digital landscape — as well as its aims for interreligious and inter-cultural tolerance.