Saudi Arabia And UAE Officially Launched A Pilot Cryptocurrency

Two of the countries in the world with the largest sovereign wealth funds combined joined forces and officially launched their first pilot cryptocurrency and we are reading more about it in our latest blockchain news today.

According to the Emirates News Agency, the Saudi-Emirati cryptocurrency is only a part of the initiatives that will be implemented in the near future in both countries.

The Executive Committee of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council was founded back in 2016 and announced that the new cryptocurrency will be used only for cross border payments between local banks and central banks.

This new cryptocurrency is considered an experiment in order to better understand the blockchain technology and to see how the cross border transactions will work across the two countries. The pilot will show the payment flows between the countries.

A short excerpt from the announcements notes:

‘’The virtual currency relies on the use of a distributed database between the central banks and the participating banks from both sides. It seeks to safeguard customer interests, set technology standards and assess cybersecurity risks. The project will also determine the impact of a central currency on monetary policies.’’

The financial institutions in the countries have thoroughly studied the blockchain technology and are hoping to have great benefits. Back in December 2018, UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority recognized ICOs as securities and they also announced to be working on a regulatory framework for 2019.

UAE’s Emirates Islamic Bank also tested the blockchain and even started submitting cheques on a blockchain named ‘’Cheque Chain’’ and since it has proven to be successful, the bank registered one million cheques in 2018 in only a month.