Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the UAE’s minister of state for international trade, has predicted that cryptocurrency will play a “significant role” in the country’s involvement in global trade in the future.

Al-Zeyoudi provided a series of updates on the UAE’s 2023 trade policies and partnerships during an interview with Bloomberg on January 20 in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders meet. currently meeting for 2023. World Economic Forum.

In his comments related to the cryptocurrency industry, the minister stated that “cryptocurrencies will play an important role for UAE trade to move forward,” and then emphasized that “the most important thing is that we establish global regulation regarding to cryptocurrencies. and crypto companies.”

Al-Zeyoudi went on to suggest that as the UAE works on its crypto-regulation regime, the focus will shift to making the Gulf country a hub with crypto-friendly policies that also have enough protections: “We started to attract some of the companies to the country with the goal that we build together the right governance and legal system, which is necessary.” [Translation:] “We started bringing some of the companies into the country with the goal of building the right government and legal system together,

Al-remarks Zeyoudi came less than a week after the UAE Cabinet adopted a new regulation that, in essence, ensures that entities engaged in crypto activities must obtain a license and approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Al-remarks Zeyoudi’s comes as a result of recent developments in the cryptocurrency market (VARA).

Under the terms of the new legislation, companies that do not comply risk incurring fines of up to $2.7 million.

This action is in addition to the “Guiding Principles” for the regulation and supervision of digital assets that were published in September by the financial regulator of the Abu Dhabi Global Market free economic zone.

The principles establish a welcoming attitude towards cryptocurrencies while committing to comply with international standards against money laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and supporting financial sanctions.

Additionally, Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy of the United Arab Emirates, participated in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum on January 19 that focused on cryptocurrency.

Al Olama noted that while the FTX scandal was a major cause for concern, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) still intends to operate as a hub despite all that has occurred.

According to him, the fact that crypto companies choose the United Arab Emirates as their home is undoubtedly a good thing.

The minister also distanced the United Arab Emirates from accusations that its cities, such as Dubai, tend to become hot spots for discredited crypto personalities. He said that “bad actors don’t have a country and they don’t have a destination.”

However, he stressed that governments must collaborate to prevent bad actors from fleeing the country and going on the run internationally.

“They are there everywhere.

You will see them in the Bahamas, you will see them in New York and you will see them in London. What we have to do as governments is work together, and we have to work with the industry as well, to make sure that if someone does something wrong, they can’t move from one place to another, and you’ll see them there,” he said.