Regal RA DMCC, a gold investment and trading firm in Dubai, is the first company in the Middle East to receive a license to trade cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported.
The company said it launched the world's first “deep cold storage” solution, which allows investors and traders to store their digital currencies - Bitcoin (TIKER: BTC.EXANTE), Ethereum (TIKER: ETH/USD.BITFINEX) and others - in a vault located in Dubai's Almas Tower, the headquarters of free zone DMCC.
“At the heart of DMCC’s long term strategic growth plan is the use of technology and innovation to disrupt and connect new markets, industries and customers,” DMCC Executive Chairman Ahmed Bin Sulayem said in the statement. “The announcement today embodies this approach.”
The Regal RA is already working on a crypto-commodities trading platform in Dubai, which is a work in progress and is subject to a regulatory framework being in place.
The company also wants to expand its cryptocurrencies offerings to other markets in the world, Ksenia Kiseleva, Regal RA manager of the firm's Dubai office told The National.
Ms Kiseleva said Dubai and the UAE have an interest in crypto-commodities like anywhere else, but caution needs to be applied. The only way for crypto-commodities to thrive and flourish in the region or anywhere else in the world, is to have more regulation, full compliance and disclosures.
"We are working together with the DMCC to create parameters [for crypto-commodities] and allow crypto-commodities, to be able to exist at a regulated level," she said. "We can already see the industry accepting crypto-commodities if they are not anonymous and not used as form of payment."
Regal will apply for trading licenses in other countries around the world, she said. The DMCC license is the company’s first for crypto currencies/commodities. Regal Assets was started in 2009, with headquarters in Waco, Texas.
On Sunday, the regulatory arm of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the Emirate's financial center said it is considering a governing framework to supervise virtual currency exchanges and is in consultations with industry participants to chalk it out.