Which banks in the Gulf and MENA are crypto friendly?
8 banks in the Gulf and MENA carry a CBL Score. AMINA Bank (15 of 16), Singapore Gulf Bank (10 of 16), Standard Chartered (8 of 16) lead the list. 4 of the 8 open to ordinary retail customers; the rest take businesses, institutions or qualified investors.
Every scored bank in the Gulf and MENA
| Bank | Score | Type | Health | P2P | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 AMINA Bank | 15/16 | Crypto-native | Solid | none | Yes, but only for professional clients and companies. Individuals need CHF 500,000 in assets plus finance experience, or CHF 2 million. |
 Singapore Gulf Bank | 10/16 | Crypto-native | Unknown | none | Yes. Built for crypto firms, with a USD personal account that plugs straight into Binance Bahrain. |
 Standard Chartered | 8/16 | Traditional | Watch | none | Yes for institutions, through spot trading, custody and stablecoins. Retail customers get little beyond the Mox app in Hong Kong. |
 Zand Bank | 8/16 | Business banking | Solid | none | Yes for licensed businesses and institutions, no for individuals. |
 RAKBank | 8/16 | Traditional | Solid | none | Yes. Crypto trading is built into the app, but it is a closed loop run by Bitpanda, and exchange transfer rules are not published. |
 Liv · Emirates NBD | 7/16 | Neobank | Solid | none | Yes for buying and holding crypto inside the app. Coins stay with the custodian, and there is no published route to an external wallet. |
 Wio Bank | 6/16 | Neobank | Solid | none | Yes for buying and selling crypto inside the app. No published policy on transfers to outside exchanges. |
 ruya | 6/16 | Neobank | Unknown | none | Yes for buying and selling Bitcoin inside the app, but it is a closed loop with no withdrawals to your own wallet. |
Click a column to sort. Health is our tag. P2P is community-reported and separate from the score.
How the Gulf and MENA regulates this
- Bahrain: the Central Bank of Bahrain licensed Singapore Gulf Bank as a conventional wholesale bank in 2024, backed by the sovereign fund Mumtalakat and Whampoa Group. It is the only bank in the region with direct exchange rails for individuals. source
- Dubai: VARA licenses the brokers behind the UAE bank apps. Fuze serves Wio and ruya, Bitpanda Broker MENA serves RAKBank, and Aquanow serves Liv. The bank keeps the customer, the broker keeps the coins. source
- The UAE central bank licenses the banks themselves and, since 2025, dirham payment tokens. Zand's AEDZ was approved in November 2025 and RAKBank got in-principle approval for its own token in January 2026. source
- Abu Dhabi's ADGM regulates AMINA's branch for professional clients only, with no retail and no holding of client assets. Dubai's DIFC hosts Standard Chartered's institutional spot trading desk, licensed in September 2026. source
- Enforcement has started. VARA fined Fuze in August 2025 for anti-money-laundering failures and unlicensed activity. The banks that use Fuze were not named. source
Every list for the Gulf and MENA
By bank type
By what the bank lets you do
Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers (8)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a stablecoin off-ramp (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with Web3 business accounts (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with custody (8)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with staking (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a card (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers and a stablecoin off-ramp (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers and Web3 business accounts (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers and custody (8)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers and staking (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with exchange transfers and a card (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a stablecoin off-ramp and Web3 business accounts (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a stablecoin off-ramp and custody (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a stablecoin off-ramp and staking (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with a stablecoin off-ramp and a card (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with Web3 business accounts and custody (5)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with Web3 business accounts and staking (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with custody and staking (2)Crypto-friendly banks in the Gulf and MENA with custody and a card (5)
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