The Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) along with its Saudi counterpart the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) will jointly issue a cross border digital currency which will be used cross borders between both countries. The UAE has been warming up to blockchain and cryptocurrencies at large. This cryptocurrency will not be exclusively available to customers but will be a tool for exchange between banks of both countries. This will make it the most centralized cryptocurrency till date. The exact date when it will be issued is still unknown.
The UAE also has plans for regulated Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), which will work in a very similar way to securities. According to the spokesman, ICOs should probably be regulated during the first half of 2019. The central bank later clarified that the blockchain system was “still at an early stage” and would help it gain a deeper understanding of the feasibility of distributed ledger technology.
