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

BankScoreTypeHealthP2PVerdict
AMINA Bank15/16Crypto-nativeSolidnoneYes, but only for professional clients and companies. Individuals need CHF 500,000 in assets plus finance experience, or CHF 2 million.
Singapore Gulf Bank10/16Crypto-nativeUnknownnoneYes. Built for crypto firms, with a USD personal account that plugs straight into Binance Bahrain.
Standard Chartered8/16TraditionalWatchnoneYes for institutions, through spot trading, custody and stablecoins. Retail customers get little beyond the Mox app in Hong Kong.
Zand Bank8/16Business bankingSolidnoneYes for licensed businesses and institutions, no for individuals.
RAKBank8/16TraditionalSolidnoneYes. 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 NBD7/16NeobankSolidnoneYes for buying and holding crypto inside the app. Coins stay with the custodian, and there is no published route to an external wallet.
Wio Bank6/16NeobankSolidnoneYes for buying and selling crypto inside the app. No published policy on transfers to outside exchanges.
ruya6/16NeobankUnknownnoneYes 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

Every list for the Gulf and MENA

By bank type

Neobanks in the Gulf and MENA (3)

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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