Official UPay and Safeheron Sign a Wallet-to-Card Agreement as Stablecoin Payments in the UAE Gather Pace
The two firms signed a memorandum in Abu Dhabi that pairs institutional-grade self-custody with everyday card spending, in the market where stablecoins already run most of the crypto activity. UPay and Safeheron have just signed a preliminary agreement in Abu Dhabi on 9 July, tying institutional-grade wallet security to everyday card spending. The memorandum, announced at the Stablecoin and Digital Asset Innovation Forum 2026 at Abu Dhabi Global Market, lets Safeheron’s self-custody clients effectively use UPay’s card and settlement network, and it also gives UPay cardholders smooth access to Safeheron’s wallet protection as a sign that the region’s stablecoin push has left the pilot phase behind. Stablecoins In The UAE Stablecoin payments in the UAE now make up the largest share of crypto activity, at 62% of transactions so far this year, according to data from Chainalysis. This is well above Bitcoin at 9% and even Ethereum which is at 7% and these are the two coins that most people would name first when transacting in cryptocurrencies. The country took in more than $53 billion in crypto value in the year to June 2025, up a third on the year before and this puts it second in the region just behind Turkey. Merging Safeheron’s Custody Wallets and UPay’s Crypto Cards Safeheron builds multi-party computation (MPC) wallets, the kind that splits a private key across several parties so no one person can move funds simply on their own, which is exactly the kind of security layer UPay looks to be sitting behind the UPay cards. Owen Yang, UPay’s founder and chief executive, said that the memorandum lets the two firms send clients to each other such that Safeheron’s wallet users can get UPay’s cards and settlement network, and UPay’s cardholders get Safeheron’s custody. For anybody holding a UPay crypto card, Yang described a fairly ordinary set of actions once it goes live. Starting with simply spending at the till, pulling cash from any ATM as long as your card is funded, and moving between crypto and local currency without any issues. UPay’s cards cover Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and, as Yang put it, “all stablecoins you have.” Although, there is a catch. One feature that already works elsewhere is not switched on in the Emirates yet. Direct bank transfers straight from a crypto balance run in markets such as Europe and Hong Kong, but not the UAE, where UPay is still waiting on a regulator’s licence. As soon as this licence is cleared for UPay, Yang said, direct transfers become a feature that the company can enable and work with. Adoption Is On The High Rise A lot of people at the forum are now convinced that spending cryptocurrencies ordinarily is in fact nearer than what official sources are implying even Bobby Zhou, co-founder of Aqua Labs Investment, argued that UAE renters, long stuck writing stacks of post-dated cheques, could be paying landlords in stablecoins like USDT & USDC in as little as six to nine months. His point was that the tools already exist at the moment and the only thing that is missing is the coordination between developers, agents and management companies all of which doesn’t have to come in 2028 but can happen as soon as this year, he said. Regulators also look like they are beginning to reach concrete regulations with Wai Lum Kwok of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at ADGM reckoning Abu Dhabi’s stablecoin framework, roughly two years in the making, is about 99% finished, and is in fact solid enough in his opinion to export to the United States. The only problem at the moment as he pointed out is not the regulations themselves but the traditional banks that are staying wary of offering on and off-ramp services to stablecoin issuers over financial-crime and balance-sheet worries. What It Means If You Actually Spend Cryptocurrencies For people that use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services often times, the major issue is not usually about the paperwork involved but more about what technology is sitting behind the crypto card they are using. Pairing a crypto card with an MPC wallet is meant to answer the worry that keeps plenty of people off crypto cards in the first place because they have questions about where the money is exactly and worry when it is not being spent. If cryptocurrency cards get to work as described, what you get is self-custody security and a card that behaves like any other at the checkout, with the crypto-to-fiat conversion being handled in the background by companies like UPay. The best thing for UAE-based crypto card users is the direct bank transfer feature and which is still not live until the license for it is cleared. Until it clears, someone in Abu Dhabi cannot move a crypto balance straight into a bank account the way a regular user living in a regulated and licensed environment already can. For remittance senders and freelancers paid in stablecoins, that step is often the whole point. The card, the ATM access and the ability to spend abroad are useful now. The bank rail is the piece worth waiting for, and if you are weighing the trade-offs, our crypto card versus a bank debit card breakdown covers where each one still wins. For now, with the MoU signed between UPay and Safeheron, you can already spend, withdraw and convert cryptocurrencies across several supported assets today, even with the UAE bank rail still to come. If you want to set one up, you can get a UPay card in a few minutes.