The Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) has given a gold trading company in Dubai the first cryptocurrency trading license in the Middle East, and the company has responded by launching the “world’s first” cold storage vault for crypto, according to a press release on the DMCC’s site.
Regal RA DMCC, the company that received the crypto license, is a subsidiary of Regal Assets, which is a gold investment company.
Ksenia Kiseleva, manager of the Dubai Regal Assets office, said that Regal RA is planning to apply for crypto licenses in other countries as well, and is currently developing an online trading platform for all crypto-commodities. Kiseleva notes that Regal RA sees cryptocurrencies as a “commodity” instead of a payment method, according to Bloomberg.
According to the DMCC, crypto investors trading in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other altcoins will be able to store their coins offline in what the company calls the “world’s first deep cold storage for crypto-commodities”. Regal RA’s cold storage vault is touted as one of the “most secure precious metal facilities in the world” and located in Almas Towers, Dubai, the DMCC Free Zone headquarters. DMCC promises crypto assets will be “physically insured” against natural disasters and hacks.
Generally, cold storage of cryptocurrencies means that the crypto is stored offline, directly on a hardware wallet, as opposed to a wallet or third-party service connected to the internet that could be vulnerable to attacks or scams.
Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) announced that they are working on regulations for cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), and crypto exchanges, which are as of yet unregulated throughout the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Dubai had already been at the forefront of the Middle East crypto world when it announced in Oct. 2017 that it would be releasing its own local-government backed cryptocurrency called emCash.