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5 Aug 2026 Last logged Bybit Cold Wallet Compromise, February 2025
Jurisdiction · · 1 min read · 107 words ·As of

Crypto Rules in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has no dedicated crypto licensing regime. Authorities have issued repeated cautions, while work on the underlying technology continues separately.

Regulator(s) Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and the Capital Market Authority (CMA)

Conisec Staff
Written by Conisec Staff Editorial standards Newsroom
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At a glance

IS TRADING LEGAL
Not prohibited for individuals, but not authorised as a regulated activity either.
LICENSING REGIME
No dedicated licensing regime for crypto exchanges or service providers; no domestic authorisation route to point to.
TAX TREATMENT
No dedicated crypto tax regime.
REPORTING DUTIES
No crypto-specific reporting framework; general AML obligations apply to regulated financial institutions.
MOST RECENT CHANGE
Official communication has consisted mainly of cautions that virtual currencies are not recognised and that firms offering them are not licensed domestically. Central bank work on distributed ledger technology has proceeded on a separate track from any retail crypto authorisation.

Neither licensed nor prohibited

Saudi Arabia sits in the category that is easiest to misdescribe: there is no licensing regime, and there is also no blanket criminal prohibition on individuals holding crypto-assets. What exists is a consistent line of official caution that virtual currencies are not recognised and that entities promoting them are not licensed in the Kingdom.

What the absence of a regime means

With no domestic authorisation, there is no register to check and no supervisor with jurisdiction over a platform’s custody arrangements. A firm marketing into the Kingdom is, by definition, not licensed there — which is a different statement from being licensed elsewhere, and worth separating.

Sources

  1. Saudi Central Bank, Public cautions on virtual currencies (1 Jan 2026)
  2. Capital Market Authority, Investor cautions (1 Jan 2026)

Not legal or tax advice. This is a summary of published rules, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; check the primary sources linked above.

Last reviewed by Conisec Staff. Review cadence: Quarterly.

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