Dubai’s Crypto Gambit: Buy a Flight, Shop Duty Free, Dodge Reality? 😏✈️💸

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In those restless, sleepless nights, when the city of Dubai stretches itself across the dry plain—illuminated not by the pale, trembling moon but by the cold, electric aura of commerce—it was inevitable that money’s next transformation would arrive. Nay, not gold, nor rubles, nor even paper notes—God forbid the bureaucracy!—but something as immaterial as a rumor, as incomprehensible as Tolstoy’s own beard: cryptocurrency.

And so it came to pass, as though from the pages of a melodramatic novel, that Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the grand Emirates, with a flourish of pen and the gossamer promise of progress, inked a deal with Crypto.com and the fabled keepers of perfume and Toblerone, Dubai Duty Free. Travelers henceforth may venture skywards or descend upon duty-free for their inevitable shopping spree—all through the mysterious, mystical means of crypto.

In the presence of Ahmed bin Saeed, Emirates signs a MoU with to explore ways to integrate Pay within its payments systems, while maintaining the highest security and compliance standards. Integration is expected to take effect next…

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) July 9, 2025

Ramesh Cidambi, Chief Operating Officer of Dubai Duty Free—a man who likely dreams only in spreadsheets and metaphors of innovation—espoused proudly that this step was driven by the holy quest to satisfy the customer’s every whim (and, let’s be frank, to remain richer than the local falcons). Meanwhile, Eric Anziani, the Crypto.com President and COO, appeared, as all modern men do, convinced that the arrival of digital coins on boarding passes is no less momentous than Moscow’s first snowfall.

Or, as the Peasants Say: Only the Beginning

The ink had hardly dried on this contract when yet another deal—now with Dubai’s own Department of Finance—was trumpeted. Public servants, once paid in hard coin and harder stares, will soon be paid in ethereal tokens. Dubai’s ambition, if we are to trust those holding the keys to the city, is to become 90% cashless by 2026—leaving only the remaining 10% to wonder, “But how does Baba buy milk?” 😂

It appears no merchant shall be left behind. Real estate brokers, telecom titans, and even the noble petrol stations are huddled shoulder to shoulder in pursuit of crypto. $8 billion in potential economic wizardry, with zero-tax zones thrown about like candy at a Russian Orthodox wedding. Dubai’s VARA, meanwhile, keeps handing out licenses with the enthusiasm of a grandmother distributing pelmeni.

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Why Even Bother, You Ask?

Dubai Duty Free, brimming with a record-shattering AED 4.118 billion in sales for the first half of 2025—no doubt helped by travelers panic-buying chocolates before the flight—seeks only to delight those who know their crypto wallets better than their mothers’ birthdays. Meanwhile, Emirates rides this digital sleigh straight into the hearts of younger fliers and those few souls who truly believe Satoshi is their spirit animal.

For now, all remains in the ghostly phase of “feasibility studies,” a phrase perhaps invented to give bureaucrats something to do before lunch. Someday soon, however, one will be able to book a flight or purchase a fluorescent perfume with a tap and a digital sigh, and the city will praise its own disruption—if only at cocktail parties. All this, naturally, so Dubai may forever remain ten steps ahead of whatever everyone else is doing.

Don’t Blink, Or Crypto Will Revolutionize Your Coffee Order ☕️

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FAQs

Is Dubai a crypto-friendly country?

If being surrounded by the desert and zero-tax zones, while everyone smiles enthusiastically at computer screens, counts as crypto-friendly, then yes. Dubai is as welcoming to digital currencies as a samovar is to hot water.

Is Dubai Duty Free accepting crypto payments in 2025?

Certainly. By 2025, you may pay for your duty-free gold chocolates with crypto, impressing your fellow travelers and confusing your accountant. Don’t ask the camels what they think.

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2025-07-09 14:05