Multinational bitcoin exchange igot will today launch the first bitcoin exchange in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to capitalize on the unique opportunity posed by the market.The Australia-based company's founder Rick Day told CoinDesk the new exchange will operate with a Commercial Brokerage License, approved by the local government.It has also secured local banking partners for direct deposits and withdrawals in UAE dirhams (AED).Igot has hired a small team for business development and customer support for its Dubai office.Day added that igot will continue to offer the same flat 1% trading fee to all its customers worldwide, with no additional fees for deposits or withdrawals in either bitcoin or fiat currencies.The exchange is aimed more at consumers than professional traders, with a simple buy-sell interface.However, it recently implemented a feature called 'Future Trade' which functions like limit orders on a more advanced exchange, giving customers the option to set their price and wait for bitcoin's value to rise or fall to that level before executing the trade.

As well as bank access, igot is also working with local payment processors to give users more options in the coming months.As well as having a concentration of high net-worth individuals among its citizens, about 60% of the UAE's workforce consists of expat Indian workers, both professional and manual, who often send their money back home.bitcoin lawyer torontoIn fact, foreign citizens make up a staggering 91% of the UAE's population of 9.2 million, with 1 million Indians representing the country's largest overall group.bitcoin vps reviewDay said that, given that India is currently igot's largest market outside Australia, its presence in the UAE puts the company in a very interesting position.bitcoin melbourne conference

"Our strategy to expand igot is based on a pairing system.India is one of our best performing markets.In terms of trade volumes, I think we're the biggest local exchange there.Indians sent $70bn home in 2012."Igot will also target UAE's wealthy native population, as well as its institutional investors, all of whom have a diverse investment portfolio.vtc to bitcoinThe UAE economy is the second largest in the Arab world.bitcoin-qt switchesFor a country now famous as a world hub for capitalism and rapid development, the UAE has seen relatively little action on the bitcoin front.bitcoins kaufen unter 18So far, news has been limited to one pioneering pizzeria and a startup, Umbrellab, which offers payment solutions including bitcoin and was reportedly trying to integrate bitcoin ATM functions into Dubai's existing payment kiosk network.bitcoin market gets a lift from china

Igot's Day said forming banking relationships was never easy, but the company was able to use its established banking track record in Australia, New Zealand and India to state its case with UAE bankers.Headquartered in Adelaide, Australia, igot has always had plans for expansion into the potentially lucrative markets of Asia and the Middle East.bitcoin casino apiDay said the company had processed more than $25m worth of trades in the seven months since it launched.litecoin fee calculatorUsers executed over 10,000 trades via the Future Trades feature, a number that spiked during the bitcoin price volatility of the past few weeks.It also has a $15 friend-referral scheme and has implemented Jumio Inc's BISON ID verification system, which has seen the company's fraud rate drop by 93.29%.Igot uses the same homepage and interface internationally, but users can connect directly to bank accounts in Australia, India, UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.

There is also the option to use other international bank accounts via the SWIFT network.The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.Buy bitcoins online in United Arab Emirates Seller Payment method Show more… Sell bitcoins online in United Arab Emirates Buyer Payment method Show more… Buy and Sell Bitcoins in these popular cities in United Arab Emirates City Trading AmountGlobal Bitcoin allows you to send and receive money anywhere in the world without using a bank or a credit card.The Future Bitcoin is the future of digital money.You can think of it as the currency of the internet.Fast Sending money with bitcoin is like sending an email.It's easy and fast.This is the first in a series of articles considering legal issues relating to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the UAE.In this article we focus on the legal status of bitcoin and address the question of whether bitcoin is banned in the UAE.

In part two we will consider the case for regulating bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and in part three we will consider legal issues relating to the adoption of blockchain technology by public and private entities in the UAE.Recent developments in the payments regulatory environment in the UAE have turned a spotlight on the legal status of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in UAE.On 1 January 2017, the UAE Central Bank published the “Regulatory Framework For Stored Values and Electronic Payment Systems” (see also United Arab Emirates – the New Digital Payments Regulatory Landscape).The focus of the Regulations was “to facilitate robust adoption of digital payments across the UAE in a secure manner,” but the Regulations contained the following statement which initially caused some concern among the cryptocurrency community in the UAE: “D.7.3.Provisions for Virtual Currencies – All Virtual Currencies (and any transactions thereof) are prohibited” On its own terms, this statement was open to one possible interpretation as banning bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies in the UAE.

On 1 February 2017, the Governor of the UAE central bank, His Excellency Mubarak Rashed Khamis Al Mansouri, issued a statement to Gulf News saying that “these regulations do not cover ‘virtual currency’” and “these regulations do not apply to bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, currency exchanges, or underlying technology such as Blockchain.” He further added that virtual currencies are under review by the Central Bank and new regulations will be issued as appropriate.This, and the report from the Dubai Supreme Legislation Committee in November 2016 that it was considering “the present and future of the legislative and legal frameworks related to cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin” is a very welcome signal that the UAE is seeking to develop mature regulatory environment for the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and we eagerly await further guidance from the UAE authorities on this subject.In the interim, the question remains – what is the current legal status of bitcoin in the UAE?

Bitcoin – a currency or a commodity?A threshold question in considering the legal status of bitcoin is whether it is classified in a jurisdiction as a commodity (like gold) or a currency (like dirhams or US dollars).There is no clear international consensus on this question at the moment – in the US, bitcoin has been treated as a commodity by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and in the European Court of Justice, bitcoin has been treated as a currency for VAT purposes.Why does this matter?It matters for a number of reasons: What about blockchain?Is it treated the same way as bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?It is very important to make a distinction between blockchain as an enterprise and social technology and bitcoin as simply one use case, albeit the most successful use case to date, of that technology.At a very basic level, a blockchain is a distributed ledger that records bitcoin transactions and is akin to an electronic database ledger used by financial services organizations to record fiat currency transactions.

We will discuss the laws applicable to the use of blockchain by a public or private sector entity in a future article, but in terms of asking whether or not blockchain is permitted in the UAE, it would appear that there are no laws that prohibit the use of blockchain as an alternative to a more traditional database ledger.Where next for bitcoin and blockchain in the UAE?Bitcoin and blockchain appear to be on the radar of the UAE Government and the UAE Central Bank.The above report from the Dubai Supreme Legislation Committee notes that the UAE, “should be among the first in the region and the world to establish a legislative framework and a financial and organisational structure for this technology.” This would be a welcome development and in the next article we will set out the case for regulating bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and outline some possible approaches to creating a regulatory environment that protects confidence in the UAE’s financial systems, protects the consumer, supports the UAE’s smart government initiatives and drives innovation and growth in the fintech, payments and blockchain sectors.