Crypto.com Teamed Up With Dubai Dept. of Finance to Allow Crypto Payments

Key Points

• Dubai government officials and the Crypto.com UAE President signed the deal on May 12.
• Earlier, Crypto.com’s digital asset, CRO, experienced a price surge.

Dubai has taken another step towards advancing crypto adoption in the UAE. The Department of Finance has officially announced a partnership with the crypto platform Crypto.com, allowing government service fees to be paid with digital assets.

Crypto.com is a global crypto platform. It was initially founded under the name “Monaco” in Hong Kong by Bobby Bao, Gary Or, Kris Marszalek, and Rafael Melo in 2016, and in 201,8 it was renamed “Crypto.com.”

Dubai Finance Signed an MoU With Crypto.com

According to official reports revealed earlier by CNBC, the Dubai Dept. of Finance (DOF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Crypto.com.

The MoU was signed yesterday, May 12, during the Dubai FinTech Summit, and will allow government service fees to be paid in digital assets. The deal was sealed between the Dubai government officials and Crypto.com UAE President, Mohammed Al Hakim.

Dubai’s Cashless Strategy

CNBC reported that government officials have stated that this partnership will help advance the “Dubai Cashless Strategy,” which aims to solidify the city’s status as a leading digital region.

This strategy targets the following:

• Reaching 90% cashless transactions across Dubai’s public and private sectors by next year
• Allowing individuals and government entities’ business customers to pay service fees via Crypto.com’s digital wallets

Dubai Finance highlighted that Crypto.com will convert payments into Emirati dirhams and transfer them into Dubai Finance’s accounts, ensuring a payment framework that will be:

• Streamlined
• Secure
• Innovative

A “Truly 1st” Global Program

Crypto.com’s President called this deal and initiative a truly global first program, while the agreement didn’t exactly state what type of digital assets would be accepted or which government fees this deal would cover.

Crypto.com announced its official Virtual Asset Service Provider License granted by the region’s regulatory authority on November 14, 2023. Its Dubai entity is called CRO DAX Middle East FZE.

Today, Crypto.com’s digital asset, Cronos (CRO), recorded a price surge.

CRO Price Surges

Following an earlier drop from a market cap of $2.69 billion to $2.54 billion, CRO’s price debuted an upward trajectory, seeing a recovery.

At the moment of writing this article, CRO is trading at above $0.09, and the digital asset has a market cap of over $2,64 billion.

Despite the coin’s price being down by 2% in the past 24 hours, CRO has surged by approximately 3% this morning.