Ripple secures Dubai license to offer crypto payments in UAE
Blockchain payment provider Ripple received full regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to offer cross-border crypto payment services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The company announced on March 13 that it had secured its DFSA license, allowing it to operate in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a UAE free-economic zone with its own tax policies and regulatory framework.
The announcement came almost six months after the company announced its receipt of an in-principle approval of the DFSA license. On Oct. 1, 2024, Ripple revealed that it was working to become licensed by the DFSA as it aimed to roll out its digital asset infrastructure in the UAE.
Enabling blockchain-based global payments for UAE businesses
With this license, Ripple can now provide its global blockchain-based payment solutions to businesses across the UAE. The company said this allows it to cater to financial institutions looking for partners to help them use digital assets in real-world applications.
In a news release sent to Cointelegraph, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the UAE is “well-placed” to benefit from tech and crypto innovation, thanks to its early leadership and supportive environment:
“We are entering an unprecedented period of growth for the crypto industry, driven by greater regulatory clarity around the world and increasing institutional adoption.”
Ripple also reported that it had seen increased demand across the Middle East for cross-border payments. The company said the demand was not limited to crypto-native firms but also came from traditional financial institutions.
Related: UAE to introduce legal framework for DAOs
Ripple becomes the first crypto payment provider in the DIFC
With DFSA approval, Ripple has become the first blockchain-enabled payments provider to operate within DIFC’s free zone, according to DIFC CEO Arif Amiri.
”We are thrilled that Ripple is deepening their commitment to Dubai by securing a DFSA license that makes them the first blockchain-enabled payments provider in DIFC,” he said.
The license allows Ripple to tap into opportunities in the UAE and the broader MENA region, he added.
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Blockchain gaming company Wemade is pushing for a Korean won-based stablecoin ecosystem, forming a Global Alliance for KRW Stablecoins (GAKS) with Chainalysis, CertiK and SentBe as founding partners.
Wemade announced that the alliance will support StableNet, a dedicated mainnet for Korean won-backed stablecoins, with publicly released code and a consortium model that aims to meet institutional and regulatory requirements.
Within the partnership, Chainalysis will integrate threat detection and real-time monitoring, while CertiK will handle node validation and security audits.
Money transfer company SentBe will contribute licensed remittance infrastructure across 174 countries. This allows the KRW stablecoin initiative to operate within South Korea’s regulated digital asset ecosystem.
The launch marks a coordinated effort from Wemade to reposition itself as a long-term infrastructure builder after years of setbacks, including token delistings and a bridge hack that undermined investor confidence.
Wemade’s rocky road and stablecoin pivot
Wemade’s push into stablecoin infrastructure follows a turbulent seven-year expansion from a traditional gaming studio into one of South Korea’s most ambitious blockchain builders.
The company launched its blockchain division in 2018 and expanded it from a four-employee team into a 200-person operation. Still, the rapid growth collided with the country’s evolving regulatory landscape, forcing the company to limit its play-to-earn (P2E) offerings to overseas markets.
Much of the pressure faced by Wemade centered on its native WEMIX token. In 2022, South Korean exchanges delisted the asset, citing discrepancies between its reported and actual supply. This resulted in a price drop of over 70% for the token.
The token suffered another major blow in 2024, when a bridge exploit resulted in 9 billion won (about $6 million) in losses. The company’s delayed disclosure attracted scrutiny and eroded further investor trust, leading to a second wave of token delistings.
The stablecoin pivot marks another attempt from Wemade to reset the narrative around the company and reposition its technology toward a more compliant and infrastructure-focused use case.
In a Korea Times report, the company said that it’s developing a KRW-focused stablecoin mainnet while avoiding becoming the stablecoin issuer itself. It’s positioning itself as a technology partner and consortium builder for other South Korean companies.
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South Korea’s post-Terra regulatory landscape
The Terra collapse in 2022 continues to cast a shadow over South Korea’s digital asset policy, leaving lawmakers and regulators particularly sensitive to risks associated with stablecoins.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Bank of Korea (BOK) have taken uncompromising stances since 2022, pushing for stricter liquidity, oversight and disclosure rules as they work on an upcoming stablecoin framework focused on risk-cointainment.
The central bank also advocated giving banks a leading role in stablecoin issuance, helping to mitigate risks to financial and foreign exchange stability.
The BOK warned that allowing non-banking institutions to take the lead in stablecoin issuance could undermine existing regulations.
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Major cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is the latest company to secure a license under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.
KuCoin’s European arm, KuCoin EU, secured a MiCA license from the Financial Market Authority of Austria, the company said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph on Friday.
The authorization allows KuCoin EU to offer crypto asset services across 29 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), excluding Malta, according to the exchange’s representatives.
“Securing the MiCA license with our local entity in Austria is a defining milestone in KuCoin’s long-term trust and compliance strategy,” KuCoin CEO BC Wong said, adding that the regulatory framework is “one of the highest regulatory standards worldwide.”
Vienna as a strategic European crypto hub
KuCoin’s MiCA approval follows its license application filed in early 2025, arriving months after several crypto asset providers (CASPs), including Austria-based Bitpanda, had already secured MiCA authorization in other EU member states.
“The decision to choose Austria was primarily driven by the timely implementation of the MiCA accompanying laws, the stable and foreseeable regulatory environment as well as the huge talent pool,” the exchange said in a statement in February.
Alongside KuCoin, Austria’s FMA has issued MiCA licenses to five more CASPs: crypto-friendly Amina Bank, Bitpanda, Bybit, Cryptonow and FIOR Digital.
“This milestone strengthens KuCoin’s commitment to responsible global expansion,” KuCoin CEO Wong said, adding: “Compliance is not simply a regulatory obligation — it is the foundation of our long-term mission to deliver secure, innovative, and accessible digital asset services to users worldwide.”
Related: Blockrise wins Dutch MiCA license, brings Bitcoin-backed loans to EU businesses
Cointelegraph contacted KuCoin for comment regarding the Malta exception, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
As previously mentioned, Malta has issued multiple MiCA licenses to CASPs like Blockchain.com and the Winklevoss twins-owned Gemini exchange. Malta has also emerged as a major opponent of centralized MiCA supervision within the EU, contrary to the position of member states such as France.
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The IMF dropped an explanatory video on its X handle today exploring the new phenomenon of tokenized markets.
The international body responsible for ensuring the stability of the global monetary system recognized the advantages of tokenized markets in the video, but warned that they can be prone to flash crashes and are more volatile than traditional markets.
“Tokenization can make financial markets faster and cheaper, but efficiencies from new technologies often come with new risks,” the video said.
IMF lays out benefits of tokenized markets
The video frames tokenization as the next step in money’s evolution, explaining that tokenization can make it “faster and cheaper to buy, own, and sell assets” by cutting down the long chain of intermediaries.
Instead of relying on clearinghouses and registrars, a tokenized market can automate those functions in code.
According to the IMF, researchers studying early tokenized markets have already “found significant cost savings,” with programmability allowing near‑instant settlement and more efficient collateral use.
Related: Binance adds BlackRock’s BUIDL as off-exchange collateral for institutional traders
Warns of risks tokenization can bring
Still, the IMF stresses that those same efficiencies can amplify familiar dangers. Automated trading has “already led to sudden market plunges known as flash crashes,” and the IMF cautioned that tokenized markets, with instantly executed trading, “can be more volatile” than traditional venues.
In stressed conditions, complex chains of smart contracts “written on top of each other” may interact “like falling dominoes,” turning a local problem into a systemic shock.
The video also highlights the risk of fragmentation if many tokenized platforms emerge that “don’t speak to each other,” undermining liquidity and failing to deliver on the promise of faster, cheaper markets.
It also hinted at increased participation from governments. “Governments have rarely been content to stay on the sidelines during important evolutions of money.”
It added that, if history is any guide, they are likely to take “a more active role in the future of tokenization.”
Governments’ role in money shifts
History is littered with examples of global governments’ participation in monetary evolutions. In 1944, the Bretton Woods agreement saw governments actively redesign the global monetary system, fixing exchange rates to the United States dollar and tying the dollar itself to gold. It was a top‑down decision that shaped cross‑border finance for a generation.
When mounting fiscal costs and external imbalances made the gold peg unsustainable, the collapse of that framework in the early 1970s ushered in fiat currencies and floating exchange rates, alongside structurally larger public‑sector deficits in many advanced economies.
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IMF research meets a maturing tokenization market
This is not the IMF’s first foray into tokenization. The fund has spent years probing the tokenization market structure and digital money. Shifting that analysis into a public‑facing explainer video shows that tokenization is now seen as a mainstream policy issue, rather than a niche experiment.
Tokenized markets have grown into a multibillion-dollar industry with key players like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund quickly becoming the world’s largest tokenized Treasury fund, surpassing Franklin Templeton’s Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund while expanding through 2024 and 2025.
The IMF’s video posits that while tokenization may deliver faster, cheaper and more programmable markets, those markets will grow under close regulatory scrutiny and governments will be ready to intervene.
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