stable coins
By Bruce Buterin
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SVF License Makes It All Legal. Before any of this could happen, Crypto.com had to get its paperwork in order.
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Air Arabia Already Moved First. Emirates isn't the first regional carrier to go here.
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What's Still Unknown. The service is UAE-only for now. Neither Emirates nor Crypto.
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Emirates has started accepting cryptocurrency payments for flight bookings. UAE residents can now pay through Crypto.
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The mechanics are pretty straightforward. Mobile users get redirected to the Crypto.com app to authorize payment directly from their crypto wallets.
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The partnership between the two companies was first announced in July 2025.
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Before any of this could happen, Crypto.com had to get its paperwork in order. The company secured a Stored Value Facilities license from the UAE central bank — a specific…
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The SVF license is what makes the conversion model work. A customer's crypto gets held briefly in a Crypto.
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Adnan Kazim, Emirates' chief commercial officer, said the airline wants to serve a digitally savvy generation.
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Emirates isn't the first regional carrier to go here. Air Arabia beat them to it — the Sharjah-based airline started accepting the AE Coin, a dirham-backed stablecoin, for flight…
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Read also: Emirates Crypto Payments Go Live for UAE Residents Buying Flights
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That context matters. It's not like Emirates is taking a wild gamble on some untested concept.
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Crypto.com, for its part, was handling roughly $686 million in 24-hour trading volume around the time of the announcement.
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The service is UAE-only for now. Neither Emirates nor Crypto.com has said anything about expanding it to passengers in other countries.
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And it's worth being honest about what this isn't yet. It's not a full crypto payment rollout.
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