Key Takeaways:
- ย Dubai World Trade Center to become a new crypto zone and regulator for virtual assetsย
- Dubai’s latest economic initiative is part of the Arabian city’s most current economic strategy.
The Dubai government recently announced that the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) would establish a cryptocurrency zone and oversee other virtual and encrypted assets, products, digital exchanges, and operators in the city.
“Rigorous criteria for investor safety, anti-money laundering, combatting the funding of terrorism, compliance, and cross border deal flow tracing” will be devised, according to a statement released by the Dubai media office on Monday.
This new endeavour by the Dubai authorities is part of the Arabian city’s most recent economic orientation, which seeks to create new economic sectors that will attract enterprises in the face of increased regional economic competition.
“The World Trade Center will deliver and oversee a new world-class regulatory framework of Virtual Asset legislative and enforcement policies, which will be critical to facilitating and broadening cross-border operations and ecosystem innovation to enable safe market adoption and growth for this sector in Dubai,” according to the official statement.
This isn’t the first time the Dubai government has taken similar crypto-regulation steps this year.
The Securities and Commodities Authority of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Dubai World Trade Center Authority (DWTCA) established a framework three months ago that permits the DWTCA to approve and regulate financial transactions using crypto-assets.
Only a month later, the Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC), the Middle East’s largest financial centre, announced the first element of a regulatory framework for digital tokens.
Amid the state’s legislative initiatives, it’s worth mentioning that Dubai has undoubtedly experienced a slew of positive crypto-related developments this year.
Kiklabb, a Licensed Solutions Provider to Companies controlled by the Dubai Government’s Ports, Customs, and Free Zone Corporation, began taking cryptocurrency as payment for its services earlier this year.
Emcredit, a subsidiary of the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED), and Ebooc Fintech & Loyalty Labs LLC announced a partnership in October that allowed Dubai residents to pay for goods and services using emcash, a state-backed digital currency.