In the space of one week, you can now book an Emirates flight and shop at Dubai Duty Free using crypto — and that is not where it stops. Dubai residents will soon be able to pay government fees the same way. Joining me is Mohamed Al Hakim, President and General Manager for the UAE and Bahrain at Crypto.com. Mohammed, welcome to Wall Street to Mena. Emirates and Dubai Duty Free both went live within two weeks of each other. Walk us through what makes this timing possible.
To answer your first question, I want to take this back to July 2025. After we received the blessings from His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airlines, and the Chairman of Dubai Duty Free — and this all goes back to the amazing vision and guidance of His Highness Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum when he started VARA — we saw the digital asset space growing in the UAE. We started seeing very high demand for digital asset payments, but we wanted to make sure it was regulated in the right way.
So we approached the Central Bank — becoming the first crypto company in the UAE to receive a Stored Value Facility license, which means we can hold client money accounts and accept digital asset payments with Central Bank approval. These three teams — Emirates Group, Dubai Duty Free, and Crypto.com — worked tirelessly for the last nine months to ensure we could deliver.
I want to make sure this is clearly understood. People are assuming that Emirates Airlines is accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum directly. What they do not understand is the process. When a customer scans the barcode at the point of sale at the airport, or books a flight through Emirates' website, Crypto.com sits as the intermediary between the customer and the merchant. We take that digital asset token, sell it into AED, and deposit AED directly into Emirates' and Dubai Duty Free's accounts. It is a pure fiat transaction for the merchant. Straightforward AED settlement.
That is an important detail — when someone pays with crypto, the settlement is in AED. How is that happening and was that the key detail that got Emirates and Dubai Duty Free over the line?
Absolutely — and I think it was the most important part. The Central Bank's Stored Value Facility license requires settlement in AED. No company today wants to hold digital asset tokens on their balance sheet because of the risk involved. But we want to make sure alternative payment methods are available for our customers. So we came to a clean, straightforward solution: as an exchange, we sell the token into AED and settle AED directly with Emirates and Dubai Duty Free. That gave them the assurance that there is no risk on their side and nothing on their balance sheet other than AED itself.
You have also signed an agreement with Dubai's Department of Finance to let residents pay government fees through crypto. What does that mean once it goes live?
This came with the direction of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, to make Dubai a cashless city with 90% of transactions going digital. What we have done is add Crypto.com Pay into that ecosystem — alongside Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Google Pay. That means if you want to do a land transaction, pay RTA fines, Dubai Police fines, renew your car — anything under the Dubai payment system — you will be able to use Crypto.com Pay. And we settle with the Dubai government in AED. The integration is complete and we are just waiting for the green light from the Dubai government on when to go live.
Thank you so much, Mohamed Al Hakim, President and General Manager for Crypto.com UAE and Bahrain.
Thank you. And remember — you are living in the UAE. Nothing is impossible. Everything is possible in this country.
