Abu Dhabi Airports has partnered with Al Hail Holding and fintech firm Xare to bring regulated crypto payment options to Zayed International Airport. The memorandum of understanding, signed in October 2025, aims to let travelers pay with Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other digital currencies across the airport.
The initiative is still in its pilot phase, with testing and operational planning underway.
What the partnership actually involves
The three-way collaboration between Abu Dhabi Airports, Al Hail Holding, and Xare is focused on deploying a regulated digital wallet alongside crypto payment rails for inbound travelers at Zayed International Airport.
The project falls under the regulatory umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Global Market and its Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Unlike some crypto payment experiments that operate in regulatory gray zones, this one is designed to work within an existing, established framework from day one.
The UAE’s broader crypto infrastructure play
Emirates Airlines has its own agreement with Crypto.com to integrate crypto payments, with a launch targeted for 2026. When both the national carrier and the capital’s airport are building crypto payment systems simultaneously, that reflects a coordinated strategy rather than isolated pilots.
Zayed International Airport handles travelers from dozens of countries, each carrying different currencies. Stablecoins, which are pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar, could theoretically eliminate much of that friction if the merchant integration works as planned.
What this means for investors
The pilot is still in its testing phase with no confirmed merchant acceptance or transaction volume data available yet. Regulatory compliance, merchant onboarding, wallet UX, settlement times, and volatility management for non-stablecoin payments all need to work seamlessly in a high-throughput environment.