Absolute ban. in keeping with the Library of Congress “Under article D.7.3 of the Regulatory Framework for Stored Values and an Electronic Payment System, issued by the financial organisation of the United Arab Emirates in January 2017, all transactions in “virtual currencies” (encompassing cryptocurrencies in Arabic) are prohibited.”

Nevertheless, on 13 February 2018 Dubai gold trader Regal RA DMCC became the primary company within the middle east to get a license to trade cryptocurrencies, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre said. DMCC’s website emphasizes the “cold storage” of cryptocurrencies and states “DMCC’s Crypto-commodities license is for Proprietary Trading in Crypto-commodities only. No initial coin offerings are permitted and no establishment of an exchange is permitted under this license.”