Qatar has followed up a ban on digital asset services with another on crypto trading.

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Regulatory Authority deemed last week that “virtual asset services may not be conducted in or from the QFC at this time.”  The order also banned Qataris from converting digital assets into fiat, or from exchanging one virtual asset for another. Crypto trading is therefore banned in Qatar.

The ban also includes the safekeeping and administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over them.

Further, it covers “anything of value that acts as a substitute for currency, that can be digitally traded or transferred and can be used for payment or investment purposes.”

Qatar joins other countries where bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are illegal in any shape or form. These include Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Bangladesh, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Qatar and digital

Qatar had previously declined to participate in a 2018 proposal from Venezuela in an El Petro cryptocurrency project.

However, in March 2019, Qatar launched a Hybrid digital exchange with IDinar token backed up by gold. The Idinar platform was built using blockchain technology where the IDinar token is equal to 1 gram of gold. The Qatar Financial Centre developed the Idinar.

“Ibadah Inc Qatar has been given the principal approval by QFC to operate the I-Dinar E-Exchange, a multi-product digital trading platform which trades the I-Dinar with and against other commodities, cryptocurrencies, financial instruments and products as well as major fiat currencies globally,” said Abbas Ali Managing Director of Ibadah Inc. “This is the first “hybrid” digital online exchange of its kind in the world, with the base denominator exchange medium being the digital, gold-backed I-Dinar e-token.”

The fate of enterprises such as I-Dinar now hangs in the balance after Qatar’s crypto ban.

Related Story:  Takeovers & Buyouts: Tencent-led Consortium Buys 10% of Vivendi-owned Universal Music