After unprecedented economic sanctions Russians trying to save their money through Dubai crypto exchanges. Some of them buy real estate in UAE.
Being afraid of their assets freeze, most wealthy Russians withdraw money from the country through Dubai crypto exchanges.
For the past 10 days, such requests almost reached $2 billion, as per Reuters.
“We have one guy – I don’t know who he is, but he came through a broker – and they’re like, “we want to sell 125,000 bitcoin”. And I’m like, “what? That’s $6 billion guys”. And they’re like, “yeah, we’re going to send it to a company in Australia”, – One UAE crypto firm executive said.
Reportedly, wealthy Russians are usually liquidating their assets through Swiss brokers. Swiss economic affairs secretariat (SECO) stated that crypto assets are under the same sanctions and measures Switzerland has imposed on “normal” Russian assets and individuals.
But UAE government didn’t support any of the Western-Russian conflict sides. So some Russians think their money will be safe there and they even buy real estate in Dubai.
Nevertheless, most crypto exchanges imposed anti-Russian sanctions, so they should monitor any Russian-related financial crimes and money laundering. Even in UAE.
Still, UAE central bank hasn’t issued any guidance regarding the sanctions.
“People parking their money in dozens of apartments in the Marina, Downtown. We’ve seen a lot of Russians hedging their bets against the devaluation of the rouble by moving a lot of assets into crypto. And the UAE is relatively loose in terms of its regulation and authorities over transferring crypto here”, – said economic researcher Sami Fadlallah.
Source: Reuters
