Dubai’s RAKBANK teams up with Bitpanda to offer crypto to UAE residents

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda has partnered with a state-backed Dubai bank as part of its first expansion into the Middle East.

RAKBANK, one of the oldest banks in the United Arab Emirates, has partnered with Vienna-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda to expand its cryptocurrency services in the region.

According to an August 19 press release, the partnership aims to provide UAE residents with a platform to manage their crypto assets and is Bitpanda’s first deal in the region.

RAKBANK cooperates with the following companies: @Bitpanda_global As a leading provider of digital asset technology, Technology Solutions aims to provide UAE residents with the opportunity to pursue a variety of digital asset use cases securely and effectively.

Once fully launched, RAKBANK customers… pic.twitter.com/DJkxgIM1id

— RAKBANK (@RAKBANKlive) August 19, 2024

While the collaboration is still awaiting approval from the Central Bank of the UAE, RAKBANK plans to give its clients the green light for a variety of digital asset use cases and payment options once the deal is complete. Bitpanda CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad highlighted the UAE’s ambition in the crypto space, predicting that the collaboration will “transform crypto access for millions of people in the UAE and lay the foundation for future innovation.”

RAKBANK’s involvement with the crypto space is not new. In 2020, the bank partnered with Bangladesh’s Bank Asia to enable money transfers between accounts at the two institutions using Ripple’s technology. Additionally, the latest deal follows a significant legal development in Dubai, where the Court of First Instance recently recognized crypto as a valid form of salary payment.

As crypto.news previously reported, the groundbreaking decision by the court was made in a case involving an employee who did not receive his contractual payment of over 5,000 EcoWatt (EWT) tokens. The court confirmed the validity of the cryptocurrency as a payment method and confirmed the role of cryptocurrency in employment contracts by obliging the employer to fulfill the agreed payment in EcoWatt tokens.