10 Best UAE Crypto Exchanges in 2025

The UAE is gradually becoming a global crypto hub, with softer crypto regulations. In their quest to find the best cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE, our researchers evaluated and compared dozens of crypto trading platforms available in the country.

After long hours of research, user feedback analysis, and hands-on testing, we can finally share our findings. In this article, we will present you with our top picks for the best crypto exchanges in the UAE and highlight their key strengths.

We will also help you understand what the main factors are to consider when choosing a trading platform for your needs, show you how to join a crypto exchange in five easy steps, and even discuss crypto regulation and taxation in the UAE.

Key Takeaways

• The best crypto exchanges in the UAE in 2025 are Bybit, Uphold, Bitfinex, MEXC, Probit Global, Poloniex, OKX, Kraken, Bitget, and Kucoin.
• The UAE is one of the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the world
• Many global crypto exchange brands are licensed for operation in the UAE
• To find the best crypto exchange for your needs in the UAE, you need to look at licensed, highly liquid exchanges that offer advanced security measures
• In addition, you also need to find platforms that support a wide range of cryptocurrencies and charge reasonable trading fees
• Finally, you also need to make sure that the exchange you use has a user-friendly software that offers many features, and a capable mobile app
• Individual crypto investors and traders are subject to no crypto taxes in the UAE

Best Crypto Exchanges UAE 2025 Are…

Why Trust Us?

Weobopedia curates objective reviews, comparisons, and top lists, based on the findings of our expert reviewers and analysts. The platforms that we feature have been thoroughly examined and firsthand assessed for security, reliability, and transparency in their operations.

Compare UAE Crypto Exchanges

How to Choose a Good Crypto Trading Platform in the UAE?

The platform that you choose to trade on can have a big impact on your overall success as a trader, regardless of your experience level.

A great cryptocurrency exchange will make you feel safe and comfortable, and give you all the necessary tools and features to support your trading strategy. A bad crypto exchange, on the other hand, may charge you unreasonable fees, delay your trades, provide inadequate security, or even shut down without any notice.

To avoid making the costly mistake of joining an unreliable platform, traders must research and evaluate their options on several critical considerations:

• License & Regulation Compliance
• AED Payments
• High Standard Security
• Minimal Trading Fees
• High Liquidity
• Modern Trading Software
• 24/7 Customer Support
• Large Choice of Crypto Assets
• Any Kind of Insurance
• Reputation and History

To help you understand their role and how they can impact your trading experience, we’ll take a closer look at each of these qualities in the sections that follow below.

License & Regulation Compliance

Licensing is one of the key criteria you need to focus your research efforts on when looking for the best crypto exchange in the UAE. A crypto license is a stamp of approval issued by the relevant authorities that demonstrates the platform’s compliance with the regulations and laws.

To obtain their license, crypto exchange operators must meet a set of strict regulatory requirements pertaining to their operations. They must:

• Maintain a healthy financial standing
• Implement industry-standard security measures
• Operate transparently and in the user’s best interest
• Adhere to best business practices

In other words, a crypto license is a strong indicator of a legitimate, trustworthy, and reliable exchange. By trading on an unlicensed platform, you risk losing your consumer protection rights and leave yourself vulnerable to a number of unfavorable outcomes.

AED Payments

If you are looking for the best cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE, it is also important you only consider platforms that support deposits with the local currency, the AED. There are several valid reasons for this.

First of all, support for a regional fiat currency, which is not as widely used as the USD or the EUR, indicates the platform’s commitment to serving a local market and catering to the preferences of its traders. It usually comes with support for local banks, faster settlement times, and integration for more regional e-wallet solutions, such as Payit, Maganti, and Alipay.

But more importantly, being able to directly deposit AED eliminates the need for currency conversion, and allows you to make transactions faster, easier, and without additional fees.

High Standard Security

For any platform to be considered the best crypto exchange in the UAE, it has to be highly secure and reliable. This includes following strict security protocols at the infrastructure level, but also providing a comprehensive set of advanced security features to its users that they can use to protect their assets from hacks and external threats.

Some of the key security features to look out for include:

• Biometric verification (face scanning, fingerprint ID)
• Two-factor authentication
• Security key integration
• Cold storage
• End-to-end encryption
• Withdrawal whitelisting
• Anti-phishing mechanisms

By trading on an exchange that can grant you access to these security measures, and using them properly, you can effectively minimize the risk of having your account breached and your funds stolen.

Minimal Trading Fees

While every cryptocurrency exchange must charge fees to support its operations and cover its costs, not every exchange can grant you the same cost-effectiveness.

This is because different platforms have different pricing models and ways of getting compensated. Some exchanges may omit certain fees, but charge higher trading fees to recover. In contrast, other exchanges may offer you the smallest trading fees possible, but then make up for them with withdrawal fees or other charges.

It is up to you to research thoroughly and compare the exchanges’ fee structures as a whole, rather than focusing solely on the trading fees. What’s more, try to find the cheapest option for your specific trading style, as what may be cost-effective for one trader may not necessarily be affordable for another.

High Liquidity

High liquidity is another key quality that defines the best trading platforms. Because crypto exchanges use a central matchmaking model to match buy orders with corresponding sell orders to execute a trade, liquidity is a critical requirement for smooth and efficient trading.

While a highly liquid exchange that sees large trading volumes can easily match your orders at the market price, an exchange with low liquidity may struggle. What’s more, it may delay fulfilling your orders until a proper match is found, or even execute your trades at a worse price than expected to account for the lack of trading activity.

To avoid price slippage and delays and also ensure you get the best prices, you want to trade on an exchange with high liquidity. If you are not sure how to gauge liquidity, a safe bet is to choose one of the exchanges from our best crypto exchange in the UAE top list.

Modern Trading Software

After accounting for the fundamentals, like trustworthiness, security, and profitability, it is time to look at ease of use and functionality. The best cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE should provide you with all the features and tools to make trading easy and convenient, but also help you identify opportunities and time your entry and exit positions.

Most of this boils down to the software it uses to deliver the trading experience. A great modern trading software should:

• Be designed expertly to allow for intuitive navigation
• Have a user-friendly interface that presents elements clearly
• Be compatible with both desktops and mobile devices
• Offer a customizable dashboard that presents all the necessary information
• Enable real-time monitoring with indicators and charting tools
• Include built-in portfolio management and performance tracking
• Support multiple order types, including limit, stop-loss, take-profit, and others

In addition to just allowing you to trade, great trading software will support your trading strategy and give you everything you need to make informed decisions and trade confidently.

24/7 Customer Support

Another important factor that can have a great impact on your trading experience is customer support. The availability of a responsive customer support team that can quickly and effectively address your questions and concerns can make all the world of difference.

All digital platforms suffer from technical issues, bugs, and glitches on occasion, but when they involve your funds, these disruptions can be very frustrating. If your withdrawal gets delayed, or your transaction doesn’t go through, you need someone to assure you that your funds are not lost, and that your issue is being handled.

For this reason, we recommend you take the customer support aspect into account when looking for the best crypto exchange in the UAE, and save yourself the headache of dealing with unanswered tickets and unhelpful agents.

Large Choice of Crypto Assets

The crypto exchange you want to join should support a wide range of cryptocurrencies and trading pairs and allow you to implement various trading strategies. While major coins like BTC and ETH are supported on most platforms, you want to use an exchange that will give you access to all types of coins, including:

• Stablecoins like USDT and USDC
• Legacy altcoins like BCH, LTC, and XRP
• Utility coins like BNB, SOL, ADA, DOT, AVAX, TRX, ATOM
• DeFi coins like AAVE, LINK, and UNI
• Meme coins like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE

Holding coins from every segment of the crypto market will expose you to a wider range of opportunities, diversify your portfolio, and make it easier to take part in all kinds of crypto-related activities in the DeFi space.

Any Kind of Insurance

Crypto exchanges don’t fall under the category of traditional banking institutions, so the financial authorities don’t require them to provide insurance policies. Because of this, providing coverage in cases of user fund loss is not a very common practice among trading platforms.

Only the best of the best exchanges have some sort of coverage or reimbursement policy in place to cover the losses of their users. These platforms maintain emergency funds on their own initiative and offer limited compensation to affected users in specific scenarios.

Namely, the payouts from these emergency funds are typically reserved for incidents that involve platform-wide breaches for which the exchange is directly responsible. Individual hacks that are the result of credentials mismanagement, or phishing attacks, are typically not covered by these insurance policies.

Reputation and History

Finally, to find the best cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE, it is a good idea to research the histories and track records of the platforms you are interested in.

• Who owns the platform, and is this leadership team publicly known and accountable?
• Has the exchange experienced breaches in the past, and how has it dealt with them?
• Has it been involved in any lawsuits, regulatory actions, or any other controversies?

The answers to these questions can be very revealing and shed light on the platform’s behind-the-scenes operations, which may impact your choice.

Additionally, we also encourage you to expand your research beyond expert reviews and gather information directly from the crypto community. Crypto traders like to share their experiences and opinions about the crypto exchanges they use. These insights may prove valuable and offer information you won’t find on official announcements or product pages.

The Importance of an App for UAE Crypto Exchanges

In addition to all the factors we discussed above, the best crypto exchange in the UAE must also provide an excellent experience on mobile devices. Fortunately, the best crypto apps are typically the mobile versions of the top exchanges, so you won’t have to conduct additional research to find a suitable solution.

Having said that, we’d like to point out that mobile crypto apps are not merely simplified versions of desktop platforms, but rather, fully capable tools that offer access to features that are unavailable or not as practical on the PC.

With the help of a mobile crypto app, you can:

• Monitor your portfolio performance on the go
• Receive push notifications on certain price movements or order executions
• Quickly react to sudden market shifts and fluctuations
• Set up biometric verification security
• Scan QR codes to securely sign transactions
• Integrate with mobile payment services

All in all, mobile crypto apps are powerful extensions of your trading environment that can give you access to some unique features that can enhance your trading process. Consider adding them to your toolset to stay connected, react faster, and improve as a trader.

How To Register on a UAE Crypto Exchange

If you’ve already found the best crypto exchange in the UAE for your needs, but need some help with the initial sign-up process, the simple, yet detailed, guide below will provide you with step-by-step instructions:

Step 1 - Registering With the Exchange

1. Go to the official website of the exchange, or download its official app from the app store
2. Click or tap on “Sign Up” or “Register”
3. Follow the onscreen instructions and provide the necessary information to create your account

Step 2 - Activating Your Account

1. After completing the first step, most exchanges will also require you to activate your account before letting you log in
2. Check your email inbox for an activation email sent from the exchange
3. Click or tap the confirmation link in the activation email and log in to the exchange

Step 3 - Verifying Your Identity

1. Most exchanges will also require you to pass KYC verification before they allow you to make deposits or place trades
2. Initiate the KYC verification process from the exchange and submit the necessary information to confirm your identity
3. Await your approval

Step 4 - Maximizing Your Security

1. Before you start trading, it is a good idea to activate all the advanced security measures to protect your account from threats
2. Go to the security settings and enable two-factor authentication
3. Go to the account/log in settings and enable biometric verification

Step 5 - Fund your Account

1. Deposit either cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies on your account to start trading. If you don’t know how to:
2. Here’s a guide on how to send crypto from wallet to wallet
3. Here’s a guide on how to buy crypto with a credit card

By following these steps, your account will be verified and secured, and you will be completely ready to make your first trade.

Crypto Regulations in the UAE - What About Dubai?

The UAE is arguably the most crypto-friendly jurisdiction in the world. Its government has established a clear, detailed, and business-oriented framework for regulating cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges that both encourages innovation and protects consumer interests.

The main financial authority that regulates crypto exchanges and issues VASP licenses in the UAE is the Securities and Commodities Authority, or the SCA for short. All the exchange operators who want to operate legally in the UAE must meet its requirements and comply with its regulatory framework to ensure transparency, user protection, and financial system integrity.

Crypto Regulations in Dubai

While the SCA oversees crypto regulation at the federal level in the UAE, Dubai, as a semi-autonomous emirate, has its own separate regulatory authority responsible for crypto regulation, called the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA for short.

This means that crypto exchanges that want to establish a legit operation in Dubai must get their license from VARA, and meet its regulatory requirements, instead of the federal framework administered by the SCA.

What’s more, some of the free zones in Dubai, like the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), also have their own, separate authoritart bodies that oversee crypto regulations. In these zones, crypto exchanges don’t need a license from VARA, but must meet the requirements of the local regulators.

Crypto Taxes in the UAE - What You Need to Know

The UAE is widely known as a tax haven that offers favorable tax policies for investors and entrepreneurs. You’ll be happy to know that the same business-friendly and innovation-driven approach the UAE takes in general also applies to crypto taxation.

Namely, individual crypto investors or traders don’t need to pay either income tax or capital gains tax on their crypto earnings. Additionally, they are not subject to VAT either.

The UAE only imposes a 9% corporate tax on crypto companies or businesses whose profits exceed 375,000 AED per year.

In other words, if you are an individual who buys, holds, trades, or stakes crypto for personal investment, you are essentially not expected to pay any taxes on your crypto gains, in the UAE.

Final Tips

While crypto taxation in the UAE may be favorable, you will still need a trustworthy, secure, and cost-effective crypto exchange to make the most of your investments and maximize your returns. To find the best cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE, be sure to research thoroughly and focus on the key areas we mentioned in the article above.

Considering that joining an exchange doesn’t cost anything, we encourage you to create accounts with multiple exchanges and test them hands-on. Reading reviews and user feedback can be a good starting point, but to really get a feel for how a platform performs in practice, you’ll have to try it out yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions