Dubai Financial Regulatory New Rules: Privacy Coins Banned, Stablecoins Redefined

RumbleValidator · 2026-01-12T09:48:11+00:00

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has banned the trading of privacy coins and their derivatives starting today, citing difficulties in complying with anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements. At the same time, the DFSA has redefined stablecoins, only recognizing fiat currencies and high-quality asset-backed cryptocurrencies, excluding algorithm-maintained stablecoins. In the future, licensed institutions will need to strengthen compliance and risk management.

RumbleValidator

2026-01-12 09:48:11

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【BitPush】The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced new regulations today at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), banning privacy coin trading, promotion, and related derivatives entirely. The regulator stated that these assets are difficult to meet anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements.

The definition of stablecoins has also been revised. DFSA now only recognizes “fiat-backed cryptocurrencies” supported by fiat currency and high-quality assets. Stablecoins maintained through algorithmic mechanisms—such as Ethena—are no longer within the scope of recognition.

It is noteworthy that DFSA has delegated the assessment of whether tokens are suitable for the market to licensed institutions themselves, shifting the regulatory focus to the inspection of compliance implementation. This means that in the future, exchanges and financial institutions will need to scrutinize their product offerings and risk control processes more strictly.

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BearMarketBuilder

· 13h ago

Privacy coins have been banned, and now Monero is going to be devastated... But to be honest, anti-money laundering regulations do need to be standardized, which means we have to find a new track.

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LayerZeroJunkie

· 13h ago

Privacy coins are gone, on-chain privacy has truly become a luxury item now. How will algorithmic stablecoins like Ethena survive? They've been labeled as junk. Exchanges will have to take responsibility themselves; future audits will be even more intense. Dubai is really trying to clear the scene this time. Honestly, it's still the government wanting to see where the money is coming from, which is understandable. The road for algorithmic stablecoins is becoming increasingly difficult. It seems only fiat-backed stablecoins can survive.

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gas_fee_therapy

· 13h ago

Privacy coins being banned was expected, but the crackdown on algorithmic stablecoins like Ethena is really harsh. --- Dubai is truly competing in compliance this time; exchanges need to tighten up. --- Anti-money laundering reasons sound good, but honestly, they just don't want things they can't control. --- Wait, does this mean exchanges set their own standards? Wouldn't that make things even more chaotic? --- Another market losing privacy coins, decentralized concepts are becoming more of a luxury. --- Is Ethena done? I’ve never understood this thing from the start. --- Regulatory decentralization to institutions? Sounds like risks are being shifted.

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DegenWhisperer

· 13h ago

Privacy coins are completely out of favor, but I understand this move; the anti-money laundering pressure is indeed high. Algorithm stablecoins being targeted? Ethena, this is heading for disaster. Again blaming the exchanges for not doing their own checks; regulators really are hands-off. Dubai is also tightening up; it seems there is no truly free market... Hurry up and get the privacy coins out of your wallets; they are really going to become electronic waste now. The big influencers didn't expect this day when they followed the Ethena hype, haha. Anti-money laundering bans can really prohibit anything; what will be next? Licensed institutions can just do their own assessments? But in the end, they all won't pass the review.

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