Binance Pay clients in UAE versus Bahrain, you win some you lose some!

 

While Binance Pay with its partner in Bahrain is breaking records with new clients accepting crypto payments using the platform, in other places, like the UAE it is losing clients. The issue could be regulatory more than technical.

So last week, Novotel Bahrain Al Dana Resort became the first hotel in the region to accept crypto payments via EazyPay & Binance Pay, while UAE’s Dubai Canadian University seems to have changed its stance and is no longer willing to accept crypto payments. This also seems to be the same situation with UAE Emirates Zone Investment Services which has also announced a partnership, but no longer mentions this prominently on their website or in their tweets. While it still mentions it in their news section.

So back to Bahrain, Eazy Financial Services “EazyPay”, Bahrain’s payment services provider signed a payment services agreement with Novotel Bahrain Al Dana Resort, a luxury 4-star beachside hotel in Manama to offer crypto asset payments to its clients via Binance Pay application which is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

Novotel Bahrain Al Dana Resort’s General Manager, Mr. Amid Yazji commented: “Keeping up with the development of technologies, and our constant desire to provide our valued guests with the highest levels of service, we are thrilled to announce that we are the first hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the region to use the latest digital payment technologies in partnership with Eazy Financial Services “EazyPay”

This is neither the first nor the last client in Bahrain to sign up. Over the past few months EazyPay has signed up an array of clients utilizing its partnership with Binance Pay. Bahrain real estate developer Bin Faqeeh Real estate Investment Company announced that clients could apartments or houses using cryptocurrencies using EazyPay’s POS terminals.

Even stc Bahrain has become the first telecom operator in Bahrain to accept cryptocurrencies through its partnership with Eazy Financial Services, a leading Bahraini Payment Services provider specializing in POS and online payment gateway. EazyPay uses BinancePay and wallet to offer this service to more than 5000 POS terminals in Bahrain.

While in the UAE, in January 2023, UAE Emirates Zone Investment Services announced it had partnered with Binance Pay, to accept crypto payments from the UAE start-up community, small and medium businesses (SMBs), Investors and Entrepreneurs who are planning to set up companies in the region. At the time, the service was prominently mentioned on the first page of their website and in their tweets. Yet now no tweet is visible on the matter and the only reference to the partnership is in their news section of their website.

Furthermore, another UAE client who had announced that they would be accepting cryptocurrencies with Binance Pay has since then retracted their statement. UAE’s Canadian University in Dubai had announced that it was accepting crypto payments through Binance Pay. In a twitter post the Canadian University Dubai announced that it had collaborated with Binance Pay to offer crypto as a payment method. According to the post students of Canadian University Dubai can use Binance Pay to pay their fees.

But then a few days later, in another tweet the Canadian University of Dubai stated, “Dear CUD Community, for technical reasons, CUD will not be accepting cryptocurrency as a method of payment, until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

It seems weird to have technical issues after the fact, as most entities try and test the service and ensure there are no technical issues before making announcements.

Could there be another reason for the sudden retraction? Could there have been regulatory restraints perhaps? One person commented on the Dubai Canadian University tweet saying, “Lies, you backed down because of pressure from gov. Paying in USDC or crypto is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to send value across the world with perfect and complete settlement.” While other tweet replies bashed Binance.

Whatever the reason it would seem that Binance while winning many clients to its Binance Pay platform, has also lost some especially in the UAE!

LaraotheBlock  reached out to Binance spokesperson and is awaiting their comments. If comments are made this article will be updated. 

LaraontheBlock also tried calling Emirates Investment Zone services but to no avail.