Saudi Arabia Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-14Asia

Is crypto legal in Saudi Arabia? (2026)

Partially — cryptocurrency is restricted in Saudi Arabia. Current status: Restricted — no licensing regime. Oversight sits with Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) / Capital Market Authority (CMA). Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-14).

Framework: No dedicated virtual-asset statute or licence regime. 2018 standing-committee warning; SAMA regulatory sandbox (2018) and CMA FinTech ExPermit instructions (January 2018); national stablecoin framework announced October 2025, rules pending.

Saudi Arabia remains one of the few G20 markets with no virtual-asset licensing regime. The baseline position was set on 12 August 2018, when the Standing Committee for Awareness on Dealing in Unauthorized Securities Activities in the Foreign Exchange Market — a body headed by the Capital Market Authority with members from the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Media, the Ministry of Commerce and Investment and the Saudi Central Bank (then the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority) — warned that virtual currencies including bitcoin "are not regulated inside the Kingdom", are not approved as official currencies, and that no parties or individuals are licensed to deal in them. The Ministry of Finance followed in 2019 with a formal warning against dealing in virtual currencies, including schemes falsely claiming a relationship with the Kingdom.

That posture has never been converted into a statutory ban or a licence regime: as of the most recent published legal reviews, Saudi Arabia has not enacted specific legislation governing cryptocurrencies. Holding crypto is not criminalised, and residents in practice trade through offshore platforms at their own risk, but the financial sector is walled off — banks may not engage in cryptocurrency transactions without explicit SAMA approval, so no domestic fiat on-ramp is licensed.

Innovation runs through controlled channels instead. SAMA introduced its Regulatory Sandbox in 2018, published its Open Banking Framework in November 2022 and launched a dedicated Open Banking Lab in January 2023; the CMA's FinTech Lab (Financial Technology Experimental Permit instructions issued January 2018) grants ExPermits of up to two years for capital-market fintech tests. Tokenisation has so far lived inside that lab rather than in an open framework: on 6 September 2020 the CMA granted Wethaq Capital Markets Platform Company an ExPermit to use distributed ledger technology to arrange securities offerings — sukuk as the preliminary stage — and custody services.

The direction of travel changed in 2024–2025. In June 2024 SAMA joined the BIS-coordinated Project mBridge cross-border wholesale-CBDC platform as its fifth full central-bank participant, and on 27 October 2025 the Minister of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing, Majid Al-Hogail, announced at the World PropTech Summit in Riyadh that the Kingdom "looks forward to introducing stablecoins soon, in partnership with the Capital Market Authority and the Central Bank". Detailed licensing, reserve and consumer-protection rules had not been published as of 14 July 2026.

Tax treatment

Saudi Arabia levies no personal income tax, so individuals' investment gains — including gains on crypto held offshore — face no domestic capital-gains charge. Businesses are taxed on the standard split model: zakat at 2.5% on the Saudi/GCC-owned share of an enterprise and corporate income tax at 20% on profits attributable to non-GCC foreign ownership. The tax authority (ZATCA) has published no crypto-specific guidance; the treatment of crypto-related business income under the zakat/income-tax split is pending verification by DeFi Intel.

• Capital-gains rate (individuals): 0% (no personal income tax)
• Business taxation: 2.5% zakat (Saudi/GCC share) / 20% corporate income tax (foreign share)
• Crypto-specific guidance: none published

Travel rule applicability

Status: no operative VASP travel-rule regime. Because no virtual asset service provider can be licensed in Saudi Arabia, there is no domestic VASP population to which a FATF Recommendation 16 travel rule could apply. Licensed financial institutions are subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Law and its implementing regulations (Cabinet Decision No. 80/1439), which require transaction monitoring and record-keeping. How AML and transfer-information obligations will attach to the announced stablecoin framework is pending publication of the rules.

Notable enforcement and regulatory events

• 12 August 2018. The CMA-chaired standing committee (with the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Media, Ministry of Commerce and Investment and SAMA) declares unauthorised virtual currencies illegal/unregulated in the Kingdom, confirming no entity is licensed to deal in them.
• 2019. The Ministry of Finance issues a formal warning against dealing in virtual currencies, including schemes claiming an official relationship with the Kingdom.
• 6 September 2020. The CMA grants Wethaq Capital Markets Platform Company a FinTech ExPermit to arrange DLT-based securities (sukuk) offerings and custody — Saudi Arabia's tokenisation testbed.
• June 2024. SAMA joins Project mBridge as the fifth full central-bank participant as the multi-CBDC platform reaches minimum-viable-product stage.
• 27 October 2025. Minister Majid Al-Hogail announces planned national stablecoins under joint CMA/SAMA oversight at the World PropTech Summit in Riyadh.
• November 2025. Global exchanges including Bybit and BingX publicly back the Kingdom's stablecoin and digital-asset ambitions; no licensing rules are published.

Public licensed CASP list

None exists. Saudi Arabia licenses no crypto asset service providers and publishes no register — the 2018 standing-committee position that no party is licensed to deal in virtual currencies remains the operative statement. If the stablecoin framework announced in October 2025 produces a licensing register under SAMA or the CMA, DeFi Intel will mirror it. Submit corrections to [email protected].

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Saudi Arabia crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:

Doing business in Saudi Arabia — practical notes

There is no application window to join: no retail or institutional crypto licence exists, and banks cannot service crypto businesses without explicit SAMA approval. In practice, firms targeting the Gulf region incorporate and license in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai's VARA, or ADGM in Abu Dhabi) and treat Saudi Arabia as a future market — see /jurisdictions/ae/. Two narrow domestic doors are open today: capital-market fintechs with a registered Saudi commercial presence can apply for a CMA FinTech ExPermit (up to two years, extendable testing scope — the route used for DLT sukuk arrangement since 2020), and payments/banking fintechs can apply to SAMA's Regulatory Sandbox. Firms positioning for the announced stablecoin regime should watch for joint SAMA/CMA rules on licensing and reserve backing; as of 14 July 2026 nothing has been published, and any pre-launch marketing of stablecoins into the Kingdom would run against the standing-committee warning.

Methodology and sources

This profile was researched and updated by DeFi Intel's research desk on 2026-07-14 from the primary and secondary sources listed below. Claims that could not be verified against a source are omitted or marked pending — we do not republish unverified third-party datasets. Submit corrections and primary-source links to [email protected].

Sources

• SAMA — Standing committee warning: virtual currencies not regulated in the Kingdom (12 Aug 2018)
• CMA — Standing committee statement on virtual currencies
• ICLG — Fintech Laws and Regulations: Saudi Arabia (2025–2026)
• Lexology In-Depth — Virtual Currency Regulation: Saudi Arabia
• SAMA — Saudi Central Bank launches Open Banking Lab (4 Jan 2023; Open Banking Framework issued Nov 2022)
• CMA — FinTech ExPermit granted to Wethaq for DLT sukuk offering and custody (6 Sept 2020)
• CoinDesk — Saudi Arabia joins BIS CBDC Project mBridge as full participant (June 2024)
• BIS — Project mBridge reached minimum viable product stage
• Asharq Al-Awsat — Saudi Arabia moves to integrate stablecoins (27 Oct 2025)
• Al Arabiya — Global crypto exchanges back Saudi stablecoin ambitions (6 Nov 2025)
• List of countries by GDP (nominal) — IMF/World Bank estimates place Saudi Arabia ~#18–19 by nominal GDP