Crypto: Abu Dhabi Company Launches First Uae-registered Us Dollar Stablecoin

Abu Dhabi’s Universal Digital has launched USDU, the first US dollar‑backed stablecoin registered by the UAE central bank under its Payment Token Services Regulation.

Abu Dhabi-based Universal Digital has launched USDU, the first US dollar‑backed stablecoin to be registered by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) as a Foreign Payment Token under the Payment Token Services Regulation (PTSR), the company said.

According to a release shared with Cointelegraph, the registration makes Universal the UAE’s first Foreign Payment Token Issuer and creates a clear, regulated US dollar‑denominated settlement option for digital assets in the UAE.

Juha Viitala, a senior executive officer of Universal, told Cointelegraph that the PTSR had allowed a transition period for payment token issuers to become PTSR-compliant and that, among all the USD stablecoins, USDU was the first to obtain such registration.

Universal is regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) with permission to issue a fiat‑referenced token and is now simultaneously registered with the CBUAE for payment‑token activities.

Viitala said that this dual oversight imposed a “higher level of discipline across reserve custody, governance, disclosures, and operational controls,” and that, for institutions, that difference was material because “registration provides a clearer compliance pathway for certain regulated use cases.”

Regulated institutions, such as banks, brokers and licensed venues in the UAE, now have a central‑bank‑registered US dollar token they can plug into existing compliance, settlement and reporting workflows.

Under the PTSR, payments for digital assets and digital asset derivatives in the UAE may only be conducted in fiat or a Registered Foreign Payment Token.

While global stablecoins such as Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) are widely used by UAE‑based traders via exchanges and over-the-counter desks, they are not registered under the CBUAE’s payment token regime, meaning USDU is currently the only US dollar stablecoin that formally meets those requirements, Viitala explained.

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Source: CoinTelegraph