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Ukraine Crisis: Russians Liquidating Crypto in the UAE as They Seek Safe Havens


Some clients are using cryptocurrency to invest in real estate in the UAE, while others want to use firms there to turn their virtual money into hard currency and stash it elsewhere, the sources said

One crypto firm has received lots of queries in the past 10 days from Swiss brokers asking to liquidate billions of dollars of Bitcoin because their clients are afraid Switzerland will freeze their assets, one executive said, adding that none of the requests had been for less than $2 billion (roughly Rs. 15,351 crore). Bitcoin price in India as of March 12 at 11:50am IST stood at Rs. 31.12 lakh).

"We've had like five or six in the past two weeks. None of them have come off yet – they've sort of fallen over at the last minute, which is not rare - but we've never had this much interest," the executive said, adding that his firm normally receives an inquiry for a large transaction once a month.

"We have one guy – I don't know who he is, but he came through a broker – and they're like, 'we want to sell 125,000 Bitcoin'. And I'm like, 'what? That's $6 billion (roughly Rs. 46,055 crore) guys'. And they're like, 'yeah, we're going to send it to a company in Australia'," the executive said.

Switzerland's financial market supervisor declined to comment on cryptocurrency transaction volumes.

The country's economic affairs secretariat (SECO) said in an emailed statement that crypto assets were subject to the same sanctions and measures Switzerland has imposed on "normal" Russian assets and individuals, so if a person is sanctioned their crypto assets must also be frozen in Switzerland.

Dubai, the Gulf's financial and business centre and a growing crypto hub, has long been a magnet for the world's ultra-rich and the UAE's refusal to take sides between Western allies and Moscow has signalled to Russians that their money is safe there.

One real estate broker, whose company has partnered with a cryptocurrency service to help people buy property, said: "We've been seeing a lot of Russians and even Belarusians coming to Dubai and bringing whatever they can bring, even in crypto."

Way out of sanctions?

A financial source in the UAE confirmed that Russians were buying property in Dubai, using crypto as a way of getting their money out of other jurisdictions and into the Gulf state.

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