The UAE’s push into regulated digital finance is accelerating as e& prepares to test a new dirham stablecoin within its consumer services ecosystem.
e& partners with Al Maryah Community Bank on AE Coin pilot
United Arab Emirates telecom giant e& has signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Maryah Community Bank to pilot AE Coin, a fully backed digital token pegged to the UAE dirham. The initiative aims to assess whether a blockchain-based asset can support day-to-day consumer transactions across the group’s digital platforms.
The agreement focuses on integrating the dirham-pegged token into e&’s existing payment infrastructure. Moreover, the trial will test how customers could use AE Coin to settle mobile and home-service bills, recharge prepaid lines, manage postpaid accounts, and interact with digital services using a regulated on-chain settlement layer.
However, the memorandum of understanding signals intent rather than a full commercial rollout. Timelines for deployment, the scope of the offering, and any eventual consumer-facing features remain undefined, with early work concentrating on internal systems and technical integration.
AE Coin framed as next-generation payment rail
The pilot centers on AE Coin, described as a fully backed token licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. Under the deal, e& will evaluate how the token can be embedded into its payment flows, potentially laying the groundwork for a new, blockchain-based rails system for essential telecom and digital services.
e& Group CEO Hatem Dowidar said the stablecoin offers “instant settlement, complete transparency, and frictionless access,” presenting it as a next-generation payment rail for consumers. That said, he emphasized that the current focus is testing, with the objective of validating how the technology performs at scale inside e&’s infrastructure.
Mohammed Wassim Khayata, CEO of Al Maryah Community Bank, noted that the pilot opens the door to expanding “real-world applications” for licensed virtual assets. Moreover, he positioned the collaboration as a step toward integrating tokenized money with core consumer services, rather than limiting such assets to trading or speculative use.
Strategy behind the UAE dirham stablecoin initiative
For now, e& has signaled interest in eventually connecting AE Coin to external e-commerce channels, but the initiative remains in an exploratory phase. An MoU does not guarantee commercial deployment, so the current work is centered on sandbox-style evaluations of how a dirham stablecoin behaves within live payment circuits.
Ramez Rafeek, general manager of AED Stablecoin, the company behind AE Coin, described the partnership as a milestone for regulated digital payments. He suggested that a dirham-backed stablecoin could become a backbone for essential consumer services, from telecom bills to recurring digital subscriptions, if regulatory and technical hurdles are cleared.
The firm was among the first to receive in-principle approval under the UAE’s Payment Token Service Regulation framework. As a result, AE Coin holds an early-mover position in the region’s increasingly competitive stablecoin market, where compliance, licensing and central bank oversight are becoming key differentiators.
UAE builds a regulated framework for virtual assets
The UAE has been steadily building its virtual asset rulebook as it moves to establish a compliant digital finance ecosystem. Moreover, policymakers have sought to align local regulations with international standards while still attracting blockchain-focused firms to financial hubs such as Abu Dhabi Global Market, commonly known as ADGM.
Within ADGM, Tether’s USDT has secured regulatory recognition as an approved fiat-referenced token across a wide range of blockchains. Licensed institutions in the financial free zone are now permitted to conduct regulated activities involving USDT on multiple networks, extending earlier recognition that covered Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche.
However, this push is not limited to stablecoin issuers. Binance has disclosed that it has secured full authorization to operate its flagship Binance.com platform under ADGM oversight. The exchange will function through three separate legal entities in the zone: an exchange, a clearing house and a broker-dealer.
Traditional market structure meets tokenized assets
The structure chosen for Binance under ADGM mirrors traditional capital markets, with segregated entities responsible for trading, clearing and brokerage. Moreover, this setup is designed to enable regulated trading, custody, settlement and off-exchange services in a way that aligns digital assets with existing financial market norms.
ADGM’s approvals for USDT and Binance highlight how the UAE is positioning itself as a jurisdiction where tokenized assets, stablecoins and exchanges can operate under formal oversight. In this context, the current uae telecom pilot for AE Coin fits into a broader strategy to move blockchain-based payments from experiments to mainstream adoption.
As of 2024, the combination of telecom-driven stablecoin pilots, adgm stablecoin approval initiatives, and new licensing frameworks suggests the UAE is steadily advancing toward an integrated, regulated digital currency environment for both institutions and everyday consumers.
In summary, e&’s collaboration with Al Maryah Community Bank on AE Coin underscores the UAE’s ambition to embed regulated, dirham-linked tokens into essential payment flows, while parallel moves in ADGM show how the country’s broader digital asset infrastructure is maturing in tandem.