Emirates has added a new way for eligible customers in the United Arab Emirates to pay for flights using cryptocurrencies. The Dubai-based airline launched Crypto.com Pay on its website and mobile app, allowing users to authorize payments from their Crypto.com wallets at checkout.

According to an Emirates announcement shared with Crypto.com, mobile users are prompted to complete the transaction inside the Crypto.com app, while desktop customers scan a QR code to proceed. Emirates will receive payment in UAE dirhams rather than taking custody of crypto itself—Crypto.com handles the conversion during the process.

Key takeaways

• Emirates customers in eligible UAE markets can use Crypto.com Pay to book flights with cryptocurrency, subject to wallet authorization and checkout flow.
• The airline is paid in UAE dirhams; Crypto.com performs the conversion, reducing direct crypto exposure for the merchant.
• Mobile and desktop users follow different checkout mechanics—app authorization for mobile and QR code settlement for desktop.
• The rollout follows a partnership first flagged earlier and comes after Crypto.com received a UAE central bank Stored Value Facilities (SVF) license.
• Emirates is joining a small set of regional airlines testing crypto-linked payment rails, alongside Air Arabia’s AE Coin option.

How Emirates’ Crypto.com Pay checkout works

Emirates says the new payment route is designed for customers who prefer to plan and book travel directly from phones. The airline’s process differs by device: smartphone users are directed to the Crypto.com app to confirm payment from their wallet, while desktop shoppers scan a QR code at checkout to complete the transaction.

This setup keeps the customer experience tied to Crypto.com’s payment infrastructure while maintaining traditional settlement on the airline’s side. By receiving dirhams instead of crypto, Emirates can continue operating its standard accounting and fare ecosystem without needing to hold or manage volatile crypto assets.

Why Crypto.com’s SVF license matters for merchants

Crypto.com Pay’s availability is tied to the company’s regulatory posture in the UAE. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that Crypto.com received a UAE central bank Stored Value Facilities (SVF) license—an authorization Crypto.com said could support integrations for payments with entities such as Emirates and Dubai Duty Free.

An SVF license generally allows licensed non-bank entities to hold customers’ money or crypto in a digital wallet and process payments under central bank oversight. For merchants, the practical implication is that customers can fund payments with cryptocurrency while the merchant receives fiat (in this case, dirhams) or approved dirham-linked stablecoin instruments, depending on the specific payment design.

That distinction is important: it changes the operational question from “can a merchant accept crypto directly?” to “can a regulated payment processor convert and settle in the merchant’s preferred currency?” Emirates’ approach appears to follow the second model, using Crypto.com for conversion and settlement.

Partnership timing and what the launch signals

Emirates and Crypto.com say the new checkout option implements a partnership first announced in July 2025. In the meantime, regional players have also been experimenting with stablecoin-linked rails. For example, Air Arabia began accepting the dirham-backed AE Coin stablecoin for flight bookings in May 2025.

By launching now, Emirates becomes the latest major travel brand in the UAE to test crypto-enabled payments—specifically through a regulated wallet and payment pathway rather than taking on direct crypto settlement risk. Emirates’ deputy president and chief commercial officer Adnan Kazim described the move as reflecting “the rapidly evolving preferences of a younger, digitally fluent generation” that manages finances and plans journeys largely from mobile devices.

Still, the airline did not specify whether Crypto.com Pay will expand beyond eligible UAE residents. For users outside those eligibility boundaries, the immediate impact is limited, even if the payment rail could theoretically be rolled out further later.

What to watch next for crypto payments in travel

Crypto payments in mainstream commerce tend to advance in stages: first through pilots, then through expansion across more routes and payment channels, and finally through deeper integration with loyalty programs and broader customer identity checks. Emirates’ decision to route crypto payments through Crypto.com’s infrastructure suggests it views this as a distribution and customer-experience upgrade rather than a wholesale shift in how fares are valued.

For the broader market, readers should watch whether the service expands to more customer segments in the UAE, whether additional airlines in the region adopt similar models, and how settlement practices evolve as more merchants rely on SVF-regulated payment processors.

With crypto payments still uneven across jurisdictions and consumer segments, the key uncertainty remains rollout scope: Emirates has launched Crypto.com Pay for eligible UAE residents, but the timeline for broader availability—and whether it will include more payment options beyond crypto-to-dirham conversion—will determine how meaningful this becomes for everyday travelers.

Ethereum price rose nearly 2% on July 29 as US spot ETF inflows and short liquidations helped ETH defend its rising support structure before the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.

Ethereum price returns above $1,900

According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price was trading near $1,913 at the time of writing, up about 2% over the past 24 hours. The token had traded between approximately $1,856 and $1,926 during the session.

The recovery followed a successful defense of the $1,850–$1,880 region. ETH first reclaimed the daily Bollinger Band midpoint at $1,874 before moving back above the psychological $1,900 level.

Ethereum’s daily chart shows price consolidating between the Bollinger Band midpoint and upper boundary. The upper band sits at $1,973, making the $1,970–$2,000 region the next technical barrier. The lower band remains near $1,775.

Buying pressure has also improved. The Chaikin Money Flow reading stands at 0.08, above the neutral line and indicating that capital inflows currently outweigh distribution. However, the indicator remains below its July high, suggesting demand has not yet reached breakout strength.

Morgan Stanley ETF adds to institutional demand

The rally coincided with the first trading session for the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust, which listed on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSSE.

MSSE attracted $5.15 million in net inflows and generated $19.03 million in first-day trading volume. BlackRock’s ETHB recorded the largest daily inflow at $5.91 million, while combined spot Ethereum ETF inflows reached $14.53 million.

US-listed Ethereum funds held about $10.5 billion in net assets after the session, equal to 4.53% of Ethereum’s market capitalization. Cumulative net inflows stood at approximately $11.21 billion, according to SoSoValue data.

MSSE’s launch expands regulated access to ETH for US investors through brokerage and retirement accounts. Its 0.14% expense ratio also increases fee competition among existing Ethereum funds.

ETF inflows alone do not prove that institutions caused the full price move. However, positive flows arrived as ETH tested a major support area, providing additional spot demand when liquidity was relatively thin.

Short liquidations accelerate Ethereum’s bounce

Derivative positioning added momentum to the recovery. Ethereum short liquidations reached $37.68 million over 24 hours, slightly exceeding the $36.66 million recorded for leveraged long positions.

The largest single liquidation was a $4.74 million ETH-USDT position on Binance, according to CoinGlass data. Forced closures of short positions require exchanges to buy back contracts, which can accelerate an existing price recovery.

The supplied 24-hour liquidation heatmap shows the strongest nearby overhead concentration around $1,938–$1,943. Additional liquidity rests near $1,955–$1,960.

These clusters may attract price if ETH maintains support above $1,900. A move through $1,960 could then expose the $1,970 Bollinger Band resistance and the $2,000 psychological threshold.

On the downside, leveraged positions are concentrated near $1,895–$1,900 and between approximately $1,870 and $1,885. Losing $1,900 could therefore trigger another sweep toward the lower part of the 4-hour channel.

Ethereum charts point toward $1,970 resistance

The 4-hour chart places Ethereum inside an ascending parallel channel that has guided price since early July. ETH recently tested the channel’s lower boundary near $1,880 before recovering toward its midpoint.

The Aroon Up indicator stands at 64.29%, compared with an Aroon Down reading of 7.14%. That difference suggests the recent bullish trend retains control despite ETH’s failure to hold its July 27 high near $1,970.

The Awesome Oscillator also remains positive at 15.66. Its green histogram bars show that short-term momentum has begun to improve following the latest pullback.

A close above $1,940 would clear the first major liquidation zone. Bulls would then need to break $1,970 and the upper Bollinger Band to open a test of $2,000. The ascending channel’s upper boundary could provide further resistance between $2,000 and $2,030.

Failure to hold $1,880 would weaken the channel structure. Below that level, the daily Bollinger midpoint at $1,874 becomes the first defense, followed by $1,800 and the lower band near $1,775.

Analysts see $1,800 as the critical floor

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe identified $1,800 as the level Ethereum must preserve for the recovery to continue.

“I’d preferably see it hold above $1,800. If that’s the case, then it’s a matter of time until we’re going to see numbers that are north of $2,000.”

Daan Crypto Trades also noted that ETH had broken above its downtrend channel, daily 200-period moving averages, and bull market support band against Bitcoin. He said the ETH/BTC structure has remained bullish since June, although further altcoin gains still depend on Bitcoin holding its support.

The immediate macro test will come from the Federal Reserve. Markets largely expect the central bank to keep its target range at 3.50%–3.75%, but uncertainty over a possible quarter-point increase has risen. Notably, policymakers remain divided as they balance elevated inflation against easing energy prices.

A hold accompanied by a less hawkish statement could support ETH’s attempt to clear $1,970. A surprise increase or firm warning about future tightening would raise the risk of another decline toward $1,880 or $1,800.

BNY, which has more than $59tn in assets under custody and administration, is moving one of its core record-keeping businesses onto blockchain as Wall Street builds the infrastructure for tokenized funds, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

“We think of BNY as modernizing a function that sits behind every single fund transaction by bringing the books and records onchain,” Carolyn Weinberg, chief product and innovation officer at the 242-year-old financial services giant.

BNY, which services about $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million accounts, said moving its transfer agency onto blockchain would create a single record of ownership, cutting out the need for multiple intermediaries.

“We fully recognize you’ve got trillions and trillions of dollars’ worth of funds that… will continue to exist on traditional rails,” said Emily Portney, BNY’s global head of asset servicing, the bank’s largest business.

BNY did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for further information.

Baillie Gifford, a BNY client with more than $261 billion under management, will use the service for what the companies describe as the first fully native U.K.-regulated tokenized fund, according to FT. BlackRock and Dreyfus, BNY’s money-market and cash-management business, are expected to use it for planned funds.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) were created to replace centralized decision-making with community-driven governance. Token holders propose ideas, vote on changes, and collectively manage treasuries, protocols, and ecosystems. However, as DAOs continue to grow in size and complexity, human contributors alone may struggle to keep pace with the increasing volume of governance proposals, financial data, and ecosystem activity.

Artificial Intelligence is emerging as a powerful solution—not as a replacement for community governance, but as an intelligent contributor that enhances decision-making, automates repetitive tasks, and improves operational efficiency. The future of DAOs may include AI agents working alongside human members as active participants in decentralized organizations.

The Evolution of DAO Contributors

Traditional DAO contributors perform tasks such as:

• Writing governance proposals
• Reviewing protocol upgrades
• Managing community discussions
• Monitoring treasury health
• Researching ecosystem developments
• Organizing grants and partnerships

While these responsibilities require human judgment, many supporting activities involve collecting, analyzing, and summarizing large amounts of information. AI excels at exactly these tasks.

Instead of replacing contributors, AI can become an always-available assistant that enables communities to make faster and more informed decisions.

AI as a Governance Researcher

Governance proposals often span dozens of pages and include technical details that many token holders may not fully understand.

AI can:

• Summarize lengthy proposals
• Highlight potential risks
• Compare new proposals with historical governance decisions
• Explain technical concepts in simple language
• Generate impact analyses

This allows DAO members to spend less time reading documentation and more time evaluating strategic decisions.

Treasury Intelligence

Managing millions of dollars in digital assets is one of the biggest responsibilities within successful DAOs.

AI can continuously monitor:

• Treasury diversification
• Stablecoin exposure
• Yield performance
• Liquidity positions
• Market volatility
• Spending efficiency

Instead of waiting for monthly reports, DAO members could receive real-time recommendations whenever treasury conditions change significantly.

Proposal Drafting Assistance

Many great ideas never become governance proposals because contributors lack the time or writing experience.

AI could help contributors by:

• Structuring governance proposals
• Generating clear documentation
• Creating implementation timelines
• Estimating resource requirements
• Identifying missing information

This lowers the barrier to participation and encourages more community members to contribute.

Community Moderation at Scale

Large DAOs often have thousands of members spread across multiple platforms.

AI moderators could:

• Answer common governance questions
• Direct users to relevant documentation
• Detect spam and malicious activity
• Translate discussions into multiple languages
• Summarize community sentiment

Human moderators would remain responsible for final decisions, while AI handles repetitive support tasks around the clock.

Smarter Grant Programs

Many DAOs distribute grants to developers, researchers, and ecosystem builders.

AI can assist by:

• Reviewing applications
• Categorizing proposals
• Detecting duplicate submissions
• Scoring projects against predefined criteria
• Tracking milestone completion

This allows grant committees to focus on evaluating innovation rather than administrative work.

AI-Powered Risk Monitoring

Security remains one of the largest concerns in decentralized finance.

AI agents can monitor:

• Suspicious wallet activity
• Smart contract vulnerabilities
• Governance attacks
• Treasury anomalies
• Oracle irregularities
• Cross-chain risks

Rather than reacting after an incident occurs, DAOs can receive early warnings that help prevent losses.

Autonomous Operational Contributors

Future AI contributors may eventually perform operational work independently, including:

• Publishing governance reports
• Updating DAO dashboards
• Scheduling community meetings
• Managing documentation
• Tracking KPIs
• Coordinating contributor workflows

These AI agents would operate under permissions defined by governance rather than acting independently without oversight.

The Importance of Human Oversight

Despite rapid advances, AI should not have unrestricted authority over DAO governance.

Critical responsibilities—including treasury allocations, protocol upgrades, constitutional changes, and governance votes—should remain under community control.

AI works best as:

• An advisor
• A researcher
• A data analyst
• A workflow assistant
• A monitoring system

Human contributors continue to provide judgment, ethics, creativity, and accountability—qualities that AI cannot fully replicate.

Challenges Ahead

Before AI becomes a trusted DAO contributor, several challenges must be addressed:

• Transparency in AI-generated recommendations
• Prevention of model bias
• Protection against prompt manipulation
• On-chain verification of AI actions
• Accountability for autonomous decisions
• Privacy when processing governance data

Developing decentralized AI infrastructure alongside robust governance frameworks will be essential for building trust.

The Future of AI-Driven DAOs

The next generation of DAOs may include specialized AI agents dedicated to governance analysis, treasury optimization, community engagement, security monitoring, and operational management. Rather than replacing decentralized governance, these intelligent contributors can empower communities with faster insights, better data, and more efficient execution.

As decentralized ecosystems continue to expand, AI may become one of the most valuable contributors a DAO can have—not because it votes in place of people, but because it equips communities with the knowledge and tools to make smarter collective decisions. The future of governance is likely to be a collaboration between human wisdom and machine intelligence, creating DAOs that are more scalable, resilient, and effective than ever before.

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Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for Telegram founder Pavel Durov, charging him with facilitating terrorist activities via his platform.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims Telegram failed to remove Telegram channels, chats, and bots “used by Ukrainian special services and by ​terrorist and extremist organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass ​killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.”

It claims this led to “numerous human casualties” and billions in material damage. 

Ukrainian forces were allegedly using a Telegram dating chatbot to recruit Russians into sabotage work while Russia has detained 46 users for criminal acts connected to the chatbot.  

In response to the warrant, Telegram’s X account posted a photo of Durov with his middle finger pointed towards the camera. 

South Korea’s KOSPI index has lost more than the entire market capitalization of BTC in the past 29 trading days.

As of today’s opening, it’s price was ₩6,089, down 35% from an all-time high of ₩9,385 on June 19. This means that constituents of the country’s benchmark index have lost more than the $1.3 trillion value of all circulating BTC in less than 30 trading sessions. 

Specifically, market caps of the index’s constituents have declined from ₩7,670 trillion ($5 trillion) on June 19 to today’s ₩4,960 trillion ($3.4 trillion).

Although the decline was 35% denominated in won, the drop was only 32% in USD due to exchange rate fluctuations. Still, by either measure, the loss exceeds the total market cap of BTC.

Losses in South Korea’s speculative, crypto-friendly, and AI-focused stock market have been as spectacular to the downside as they were meteoric earlier this year.

Within yesterday’s trading session alone, the country’s stock index lost 10.8% of its value, extending losses since June 19 when the index hit an all-time high of ₩9,385.

Even a market-wide halt for 20 minutes by the Korea Exchange yesterday failed to pause the selling.

For context, if the S&P 500 were to drop 10.8% in one day, such a drop would erase over $7 trillion — more than the GDP of any country in the world besides the US and China.