Air Arabia
Flights
The first airline in the Middle East to accept a stablecoin — AE Coin, the UAE's central-bank-licensed dirham token.
AEC
Verified
AE Coin · issued by AED Stablecoin LLC
Where can you spend AEC?
Almost every stablecoin in this directory is pegged to the US dollar, and the handful that are not track the euro. AE Coin is different in a way worth understanding: it is pegged one-to-one to the UAE dirham, and it is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE rather than merely tolerated by a regulator. That approval, granted in December 2024, makes it one of very few stablecoins anywhere issued under an explicit central-bank licence in its home jurisdiction — and the UAE federal government subsequently recognised it as a valid payment method for government fees and services. For spending purposes the coverage is narrow and entirely domestic: the practical way to hold and spend it is the AEC Wallet app, and merchant acceptance so far is a small number of UAE businesses. It appears in this directory because one of them is a listed airline, which makes it the first non-dollar, non-euro stablecoin we have been able to attach to a verifiable merchant.
Pegged to the UAE dirham Launched 2024 4 merchants listed
Merchants accepting AEC
4 merchants in the directory. You can also filter the full directory by category, network and country.
Dusit Thani Hotels
Hotels
Thai hotel group whose UAE properties are listed by Mbank as taking AE Coin through the AEC Wallet.
AEC
Payment availability may vary
Select Market
Food & Dining
Abu Dhabi supermarket chain taking AE Coin, the UAE's central-bank-licensed dirham stablecoin, by QR code at the till.
AEC
Payment availability may vary
Southern Sun Abu Dhabi
Hotels
Abu Dhabi hotel listed by Mbank as taking AE Coin through the AEC Wallet for stays.
AEC
Payment availability may vary
What can you buy with AEC?
AE Coin is the outlier in this directory: not pegged to the dollar, not pegged to the euro, and licensed by a central bank rather than operating alongside one.
Why the licence is the interesting part
Most stablecoins exist in a regulatory space that is being defined around them. The EU’s MiCA rules pushed Tether out of European exchanges; US legislation has been drafted and redrafted for years. AE Coin went the other way: AED Stablecoin LLC applied to the Central Bank of the UAE and received a licence, finalised in December 2024, before scaling.
The consequence showed up quickly. The UAE federal government recognised AE Coin as a valid payment method for government fees and services across ministries and federal authorities. Paying a government fee with a privately issued stablecoin is not something you can do in most countries.
What that means for spending it
Less than you might hope, and it is worth being direct about that.
Acceptance is domestic and thin. The merchant in this directory is Air Arabia, which in May 2025 became the first airline in the region to take it, for flight bookings on its own website. Beyond government fees and a handful of UAE businesses, there is not much else.
If you are not in the UAE, AE Coin is not a practical way to pay for anything. If you are, it is a dirham that settles on a blockchain, which for a domestic purchase is mostly a question of whether you prefer the wallet app to a card.
How you actually hold it
Through the AEC Wallet app, which is identity-verified and topped up through Al Maryah Community Bank or other supported routes. This is not a self-custody asset you send from a hardware wallet to a merchant address, and the network it settles on is not published by the issuer — which is why the networks list on this page is empty rather than guessed at.
That design makes it closer to a regulated e-money product with a blockchain underneath than to the permissionless assets that dominate the rest of this directory. Whether that is a feature depends entirely on what you wanted from a stablecoin.
AEC questions
Where can I actually spend AE Coin?
In the UAE, and not many places yet. The merchant we have verified is Air Arabia, which takes it for flight bookings. The UAE federal government also accepts it for fees. Outside the UAE it is not a practical spending asset.
Which blockchain is AE Coin on?
Neither the issuer nor the merchants accepting it publish the network, so we do not claim one. In practice payment runs through the AEC Wallet app rather than a self-custody transfer, so the chain is largely invisible to the payer.
Is it the same as a central bank digital currency?
No, and the distinction matters. AE Coin is issued by a private company, AED Stablecoin LLC, under a licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. The central bank regulates it; it does not issue it. The UAE's own digital dirham is a separate project.
Do I need identity verification?
Yes. Spending AE Coin requires the AEC Wallet app, which verifies identity and is topped up through a bank. It is not an anonymous payment method.