Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the second largest city of the seven emirates.

What happened: In late August, the Abu Dhabi Blockchain and Virtual Assets Committee (ADBVAC) held its first meeting Mohamed Ali Al ShorafaChairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and Chairman of the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA).

The committee discussed the importance of regulating blockchains and virtual assets to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) regulations.

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Al Shorafa said: “The committee brings together all relevant stakeholders to build a robust, credible and comprehensive regulatory and business ecosystem that addresses key risks and key governance issues such as AML/CFT, investor protection, tech governance and custody risk, encourage Blockchain and virtual assets.”

According to Finextra, the launch of the Abu Dhabi Blockchain and Virtual Assets Committee comes five months after the creation of the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority and six months after the United Arab Emirates was placed on a watch list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) over money laundering issues.

In May 2022, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court convicted an organized crime group consisting of 79 people, mostly Chinese nationals, of money laundering with a fine of up to US$10 million and 15 years in prison per Gulf Business.

Essentially, the committee is focused on creating a regulatory framework centered around transparency and security to better encourage and promote blockchain virtual assets.

Bitcoin Price Action: Bitcoin BTC/USD was trading at $20,026 on Sunday, down 6.69% over the past seven days.