As Global Regulators Stall, the UAE Quietly Becomes Crypto’s Most Important Testbed

When the Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) tells the Financial Times that the world’s most influential banking rulebook for crypto needs to be rewritten, it’s not a footnote—it’s a turning point. Erik Thedéen’s admission that the Basel crypto capital framework is no longer “realistic” marks the first major crack in a regulatory architecture that the industry has long argued was detached from market reality.

The most controversial element? Stablecoins.

Under the current Basel III crypto addendum, banks must treat stablecoins issued on permissionless blockchains with the same risk weight as volatile assets like Bitcoin and Ether. Industry associations spent the past year warning that the rule would freeze institutional adoption. But the louder message came from the institutions themselves: the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England refused to implement the rules altogether.

That kind of defiance from two of the world’s most conservative regulators forces the Basel Committee’s hand. When the FT asked whether stablecoins should still be treated like high-volatility crypto assets, Thedéen’s answer was blunt: “We need to start analyzing. But we need to be fairly quick on it.”

This is where the story takes a turn and where the MENA region, particularly the UAE, emerges as a central character in a global shift.

While the West debates, the UAE governs

Global banks have spent the past 18 months slowly re-entering digital assets. HSBC expanded its tokenized deposit framework. JPMorgan’s Kinexys division has multiple blockchain services at scale: Liink connects 400+ banks, JPM Coin processes over $2B daily, and the Onyx Digital Assets platform is used by major institutions including BNP Paribas, DBS, and Goldman Sachs. Citi is advancing tokenized cash solutions.

But none of them are deploying these systems at scale in the U.S. or Europe because the regulatory foundation is still unstable.

Instead, they are testing, piloting, or licensing in the UAE.

Dubai’s VARA and Abu Dhabi’s FSRA have built what the Basel Committee is still trying to define: a pragmatic framework that differentiates between on-chain infrastructure risks, asset volatility, and the role of stablecoins in payments and settlement.

The UAE’s regulatory momentum in crypto was well underway long before the Basel Committee signaled its rethink. Circle secured ADGM approval, Bybit expanded under SCA, and Tether announced plans for a dirham-pegged stablecoin, while Zand launched the region’s first regulated AED-backed stablecoin around the same time as Basel’s announcement. These milestones reflect a steady, deliberate build-out of the UAE’s crypto framework, not a last-minute push, showing how far regional regulators had progressed before Basel re-entered the global conversation.

If Thedéen is right that “everyone is talking about stablecoins,” the UAE is the only jurisdiction actually regulating them in a way banks can use.

Building Real Infrastructure

Beyond regulatory approvals, the UAE is actively developing tangible digital-asset infrastructure. Platforms such as BurjX are investing in institutional-grade custody and trading capabilities in partnership with Fireblocks. At the same time, DMCC is establishing a dedicated financial centre to house fintech, trade finance, and digital-asset firms, providing a strategic backbone for the ecosystem.

This infrastructure is complemented by the Central Bank of the UAE’s work on CBDCs. The UAE is a key participant in the mBridge multi‑CBDC platform, delivering proof-of-concept solutions for real-time cross-border payments. The Digital Dirham project is being built on legal, technological, and operational foundations to support wholesale, retail, cross-border, and government payments. Notably, the UAE has executed cross-border digital-dirham transfers via mBridge, including a Dh50 million payment to China in 2024, and recently conducted its first domestic government CBDC transaction in under two minutes.

These developments, paired with regulatory clarity, ensure that institutional players can operate securely and compliantly, positioning the UAE as a credible regional crypto hub rather than a speculative outpost.

Why the Basel reset matters most to the Middle East

For Western regulators, the Basel rulebook is a constraint. For the UAE, it’s an opportunity.

With the U.S. and UK refusing to adopt the framework as written, global banks will seek jurisdictions where stablecoin and digital asset operatins can scale without punitive capital treatment. The UAE is already positioned as the primary alternative.

This shift is strengthened by sovereign activity: Abu Dhabi Investment Council’s (ADIC) increased allocation to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, Mubadala’s IBIT exposure, and deepening government participation in tokenization pilots all anchor the region’s credibility.

The UAE’s message is implicit but clear: If global regulators hesitate, we won’t wait for them.

The bottom line

The Basel Committee’s rethink is more than a bureaucratic revision, it’s a signal that the global financial system is entering a new phase where crypto and blockchain are unavoidable infrastructure. But while the West recalibrates, the UAE is operationalizing.

That’s why the next decade of crypto regulation will likely be written in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as much as in Washington, London, or Basel.

Because while the world debates how to classify stablecoins, the UAE is already building the economy that will use them.