Crypto will play a “major role” in the United Arab Emirates’ global trade moving forward, said UAE minister of state for foreign trade Thani Al-Zeyoudi.
Speaking to Bloomberg on January 20 in Davos Switzerland – where world leaders are currently gathered for the World Economic Forum 2023 – Al-Zeyoudi provided several updates on the UAE’s partnership and trade policy towards 2023.
Commenting on the crypto sector, the minister stated that “crypto will play a major role for UAE trade in the future,” as he explained that “the most important thing is to ensure global governance when it comes to cryptocurrencies and crypto companies.”
Al-Zeyoudi then suggested that if the UAE is working on a crypto regulatory regime, the focus will be on making the Gulf state a hub with crypto-friendly policies that also have sufficient protections:
“We started to attract some companies to the country with the intention that we will build the right government and legal system, which is necessary.”
Al-Zeyoudi’s comments came just a week after the UAE Cabinet introduced new regulations that essentially guarantee that entities involved in crypto activities must secure licenses and approvals from the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).
If the company fails to do so, it will be fined up to $2.7 million under the new law. The move adds to the “Guiding Principles” for the regulation and supervision of digital assets issued by the financial regulator of the Abu Dhabi Global Market free economic zone in September.
These principles reflect a friendly attitude towards crypto while also promising to adhere to international standards in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and supporting financial sanctions.
United Arab Emirates minister of state for artificial intelligence and digital economy, Omar Sultan Al Olama also appeared at the World Economic Forum as part of a crypto focus panel on January 19.
Al Olama noted that while the FTX debacle is a major issue, the UAE still wants to be a hub despite all the ordeals.
“They [crypto companies] calling the UAE home is definitely a positive thing,” he said.
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The minister also distanced the UAE from claims that cities like Dubai tend to be key havens for disgraced crypto figures, arguing that “bad actors have no citizenship and no purpose.”
But he stressed that governments must work together to prevent bad actors from going abroad.
“You’ll see them everywhere. You’ll see them in the Bahamas, you’ll see them in New York, London, and what we need to do as a government is to work together, with industry as well, to make sure that people do something is wrong, we can’t move from one place to another,” he said.