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Dubai Coin cryptocurrency was never approved by any official authority

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Dubai - Officials told Khaleej Times an investigation is underway.

Published: Thu 27 May 2021, 11:56 PM

Updated: Fri 28 May 2021, 1:23 AM

  • By
  • Waheed Abbas/Sandhya D'Mello

The Dubai Electronic Security Centre announced on late Thursday night that the ‘Dubai Coin’ digital currency has not been approved by any official entity and that the website promoting the coin is an unlicensed site, which aims to phish e-mail information, passwords and phone numbers of people through an electronic form.

Dubai Media Office tweeted from its handle @DXBMediaOffice that 'Dubai Coin cryptocurrency was never approved by any official authority. The website promoting the coin is an elaborate phishing campaign that is designed to steal personal information from its visitors.'

Officials on Thursday sounded caution on a crypto asset that has been making the rounds, claiming to be the official digital currency of the emirate.

DubaiCoin, a purported newly-launched virtual asset, came under a cloud after Arabian Chain Technology, which was reportedly behind the launch of DBIX, denied the news.

“We haven’t made such an announcement, please be cautious. Also this website, dub-pay.com/en/ is fake and [a] scam. Please be careful,” the Dubai Silicon Oasis-based company said on its twitter account.

Officials told Khaleej Times an investigation is underway.

On Wednesday, a Press release was issued, stating that Arabian Chain Technology was behind the launch of the asset. A number of local and foreign media covered the story, with a number pulling it down after some time.

DubaiCoin was launched at an original price of $0.17 and was listed on a number of trading platforms. Since then, most have apparently removed it, including market-leading CoinMarketCap.

However, as at 11pm on Thursday, crypto.com listed DubaiCoin’s price at $1.13, indicating a whopping increase of 1,114 per cent, with a supply of 4.26 million and a market capitalisation of $4.84 million.

At the time of going to press, accessing the DubPay website leads to a ‘Blocked URL’ page.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com



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