Dubai Duty Free starts taking crypto payments at DXB, Al Maktoum and online

Dubai Duty Free began accepting Crypto.com Pay on Wednesday, becoming the first airport retailer in the Middle East to take a regulated digital-asset payment method at checkout.

The option runs at Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport, and on the retailer's website, dubaidutyfree.com. It is limited to eligible UAE residents who hold a Crypto.com account.

What the shopper does

In store, the point-of-sale terminal generates a QR code for the amount in dirhams. The customer scans it with the Crypto.com app, approves the payment from the wallet, and the purchase is confirmed through Dubai Duty Free's existing till system.

Online buyers select Crypto.com Pay among the checkout options. An integration with Crypto.com issues a QR code; scanning and approving it in the app confirms the order through the retailer's order management system. On a phone, choosing the method sends the customer into the Crypto.com app and then back to the site to finish the purchase.

Settlement and licensing

Funds move through Crypto.com's regulated payment infrastructure, and Dubai Duty Free is paid in UAE dirhams. The arrangement sits inside the Central Bank of the UAE's framework. Crypto.com holds a Stored Value Facilities licence from the central bank — the first virtual asset service provider in the country to obtain one — which allows it to provide regulated payment services under the terms of that licence.

Ramesh Cidambi, managing director of Dubai Duty Free, framed the rollout as the point where a partnership set out in a July 2025 memorandum of understanding entered implementation. He said the option, open only to eligible UAE residents through Crypto.com's regulated platform, is meant to give shoppers more choice at the till and to back Dubai's push to lead in digital commerce.

Eric Anziani, president and chief operating officer of Crypto.com, said Dubai Duty Free ranks among the largest single-airport duty free operators in the world, and cast the launch as an expansion of regulated digital payments into everyday retail. Settlement in dirhams gives the merchant certainty, he said, while the customer gets a faster checkout.

Alongside cards and wallets

Crypto.com Pay joins Apple Pay, Alipay and TerraPay in Dubai Duty Free's payment mix. The company has spent years adding digital options, and the new method feeds into the Dubai Cashless Strategy under the Dubai Economic Agenda, known as D33, which targets 90 percent of financial transactions across the public and private sectors being cashless by the end of 2026.

The travel sector has been moving in the same direction. Emirates now lets customers in the UAE pay for flights with crypto, a step that preceded the duty free rollout.

For now the service is live at two airports and one website, and only for UAE residents holding a Crypto.com account. Everyone else pays the way they did last week.