Binance is making a big splash in the UAE. Wherever you look in this region, wherever you go, they are there. So with me in the studio is Tarik Erk. He's the Regional Head for MENAT and also Senior Executive Officer, Abu Dhabi at Binance. Tarik, thank you for joining us today and welcome to Wall Street Tamina.
Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Tarik, let's start from the latest news you had. You just launched free dirham deposits straight from a bank account here into Binance. Walk us through what that actually means.
Yeah, so this has been a really exciting launch for us recently. What this means is from your own bank account in the UAE, you can make a direct deposit to your account in Binance. That is in a safeguarded account to hold your AED, and it allows you to easily buy any of our crypto asset offerings, or if you're selling, to be able to easily withdraw to your bank account.
So what that provides is a fast, secure, and inexpensive way to get money on and off our Binance exchange with as little friction as possible. Historically with crypto exchanges, there's always been some difficulty and friction depositing or withdrawing funds — you're going through expensive third-party providers or acquirers, or slow methods that are really not up to par with the speed that our customers expect. With this AED channel, it's allowing us to not only better serve our retail customers but also advanced institutional clients who expect this kind of execution speed to deposit and withdraw funds from the Binance platform.
Yeah, it's going to help for sure. And you also called this moment "infrastructure catching up with ambition." Let's talk about that. What was missing before this step that you made?
Yeah, so historically, as a crypto platform, we're very ambitious and very forward-looking when it comes to cutting-edge products and technology. But we absolutely need the support of existing financial institutions, such as bank partners, who enable this kind of fiat infrastructure, as we call it. That allows us to partner with traditional financial players in that space, but also enable digital asset access for our customers. And in the UAE, we have the regulatory clarity to be able to do so. We hold various licenses with VARA to service our UAE clients and ADGM licenses to service global clients. With that, we have the regulatory approval to work with banks and other financial institutions to help provide additional services, such as a fiat channel on and off our platform.
You mentioned ADGM, and Binance anchored its global operations under ADGM in Abu Dhabi. Why was that an important move, or the right move, for you?
Yes, so this provided a regulatory infrastructure for our global business, which is Binance.com. I think this was a really forward-looking and progressive regulatory environment for us to move this business into. With our ADGM setup, we hold three licenses — exchange, clearinghouse, and broker-dealer — and under these licenses, all of our products and activities fit really well to service our global clients in a fully regulated environment. We went live in January, and this has been one of our biggest developments of the year.
So you started with this big move. Let's go back to digital assets and talk crypto for a second. One in four people in the UAE already own crypto. Why is adoption here so much higher than almost anywhere else?
This is a good question because I've gotten the opportunity to see it firsthand. The UAE, with its business-friendly and tax-friendly policies, is attracting such an international crowd. The people who have come here to work, live, and do business are naturally people who are inclined to access digital assets or have them as part of their investment portfolio. The setup we have here in the UAE lends itself to a more forward-thinking and technologically advanced population, and crypto goes hand in hand with that. That also ties back to my previous point — we have assurances from a regulatory standpoint where your assets are safeguarded and provided in a regulated way, so it gives you the comfort that when you're accessing a platform such as Binance, you're doing so in a responsible and compliant way.
Yeah, regulations are a big part of this. You said the environment here is business-friendly — but what about regulation specifically when it comes to digital assets? Is it that friendly, or more tightened up?
Well, it has to be strict to a degree because ultimately it's about looking after the best interests of customers and consumer protection. So by no means does "friendly" mean lax — it means open and transparent about what needs to be done to operate a digital asset business. What's unique here in the UAE is that the regulatory framework is tailored for the asset class itself. The rules, regulations, and guidelines are specifically tailored towards crypto, taking into account international best practices as well as what leading exchanges like Binance believe those best practices to be. That makes for a very good partnership in terms of localizing our services and being regulated here in the UAE.
Yeah, I also want to ask about regulation in the UAE more broadly — we talk about it a lot on the show. Regulators here keep the rules straight, and it's becoming more structured over time. Does that build trust, or does it scare people off?
Well, I haven't seen people being scared off to a degree where they're not doing business with regulated firms here. I think it's actually providing a lot more clarity. As the industry has matured, so has our client base. We're working with institutional clients such as hedge funds, family offices, and large bank partners. And as a requirement to do business with a crypto platform, they have to be regulated. So Binance's setup is enabling these kinds of relationships due to our investment in being a regulated business.
Yeah, so Binance is big in the UAE, but it's not just big here — it's big in the GCC as well and in many other countries across the region. Let's talk about the next steps and the growth you're having in the GCC, and also in Turkey and Pakistan.
Yeah, so this is quite an exciting region for digital assets. The UAE is one of the leading markets in terms of setting an example and building the infrastructure. We've also invested in several other markets in the region. We're regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, where we have both exchange and payment services activities under their regulatory framework. We're also pursuing licenses in Turkey, which is very high on crypto adoption and one of the largest crypto markets globally. And as you may have seen in the news over the last year, we've been active in Pakistan, where we've received an NOC from PYRA, the crypto-specific regulator for Pakistan. We're working towards our full license there to localize our services, which is a very exciting and rapidly developing market for crypto adoption.
Yeah, this is very exciting for Binance and for this region. We're moving very quickly in this field. What's the one thing about crypto in this region that people still get wrong at times?
I think people tend to overcomplicate it, or they're unsure of the basic fundamentals — what this asset class actually means, what the functionalities of owning different crypto assets are. That's where Binance invests heavily in education, not only for the general public and our customers, but also in setting best policies with our regulatory partners. People tend to see it as abstract, but if you simplify it — and as we were just discussing with our bank account channel — this is a perfect platform where you can deposit a small amount, buy your first Bitcoin, and withdraw it to your own external wallet just to understand how the technology works and what benefit it can provide. I think that's where people have that light bulb moment where they go, "okay, I see the value in this."
Exactly. And moving forward, we're working on a lot of innovative efforts to power payments and remittances with crypto. In the back end it may be stablecoins, and the customer may be none the wiser, but they'll benefit from faster and cheaper settlements — something that benefits your everyday person.
Yeah, I think everyone right now is looking for the fastest and cheapest options. That's the goal. Let me ask you one last thing — for someone who has never touched crypto in their life, is this the moment where they can finally go and do it?
Yeah, I think we have everything someone who is a crypto novice or newcomer would need to become familiar with and educated on what crypto can really do — whether for their personal investment portfolio or just for payment functionality. With all of the work we've done at Binance to reduce friction in accessing bank transfers and our services, and making it a simple and friendly experience, this is always a good time to start.
Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for joining us.
