Crypto.com Wins UAE Stored Value License, Unlocking Dubai Fee Payments in Crypto

Crypto.com now holds a Stored Value Facilities license in the United Arab Emirates. The approval went to Foris DAX Middle East FZE, the exchange's UAE-registered arm, and it activates a partnership with the Dubai Department of Finance that had been waiting on exactly this permission.

The practical effect is narrow and concrete. Residents can settle government fees with virtual assets, with Crypto.com's platform handling the payment. Public-service charges are the target, not private commerce.

Settlement is a good deal stricter than the payment method. Government-service payments under the arrangement clear only in UAE dirhams or in dirham-backed stablecoins that the central bank has approved. No other virtual asset is named as a settlement instrument.

Access runs through the platform Crypto.com already operates locally, supervised by Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. A user has to finish onboarding there before the government payment option becomes available.

Eric Anziani, the company's President and Chief Operating Officer, cast the approval as a compliance marker.

"Being the first VASP to receive this license proves our commitment to compliance and to advancing the regulated digital assets sector in the UAE."

Crypto.com said the license also supports crypto payment integrations with large commercial merchants. Additional central bank sign-offs are still needed, but the company intends to launch payment services with Emirates Airlines and Dubai Duty Free.

What the license covers beyond government fees

Two tracks sit under the same permission:

• Public-service payments for residents, routed through the regulated local platform.
• Merchant integrations, with an airline and an airport retailer named as the near-term targets.

Virtual-asset payment integration for public services is intended to support the Dubai Cashless Strategy, a government mandate aimed at shifting transactions onto digital channels.

The design splits each transaction in two. A customer presents virtual assets; the government side receives dirhams or an approved dirham-backed token. Price risk never reaches the state's books, which is what lets a virtual-asset rail sit inside a cashless mandate without changing how the treasury is funded. For Crypto.com, the durable value is less in the fee flow itself than in the precedent. A licensed route into public payments is an argument the company can carry into the airline and retail conversations it has already flagged, and it puts a regulated exchange in the position of collecting on behalf of a finance department rather than simply holding customer balances.