Dubai’s biggest bank, Emirates NBD, has jumped into the world of crypto trading, letting customers of its digital bank, Liv, buy, sell, and swap cryptocurrencies right through the Liv X app. They’ve teamed up with Aquanow, a legit digital assets company approved by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), to make it happen.
The UAE is all-in on crypto, leading the pack globally, and Emirates NBD isn’t about to miss out. “With the highest crypto adoption rate in the UAE, we are keen to launch our own virtual asset offering to capitalize on this trend,” said Marwan Hadi, the bank’s Group Head of Retail Banking Wealth Management.
Banks everywhere are starting to catch the crypto fever. Italy’s top bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, just made its first Bitcoin buy, and Switzerland’s PostFinance AG is stepping up its game, even offering Ethereum staking.
Bitcoin’s wild ride, hitting a jaw-dropping $109,241 on January 20, has been fueling this frenzy. But things took a dip recently after President Donald Trump stirred the pot, suggesting some lesser-known tokens for a national crypto stash, which spooked the market into a selloff.
Liv’s crypto setup runs on Aquanow’s tech for seamless trades, while Zodia Custody, tied to Standard Chartered, keeps the digital goodies locked up tight.
As of 10:32 a.m. London time on Thursday, Bitcoin was sitting at $91,520—proof the market’s still a rollercoaster. Dubai’s crypto scene is heating up fast, but the government’s also cracking down on how these digital assets get hyped up, making sure investors don’t get burned.
With big-name banks like this diving into crypto, it feels like the start of something huge for everyday finance. Are more banks about to join the party?
