I've talked to a few local banks about opening a crypto business account and they all have the same reaction: 'forget it!'
So I reached out to the DMCC crypto centre with whom I have the crypto license. They recognized that there are hostilities from local banks and said that they built relationships with these offshore banks:
• SEBA Bank
• EQI Bank
• Swissquote Bank
• Maerki Baumann Bank
• Sygnum Bank
They said that the DMCC crypto centre can help put me in contact with any of these banks if I wanted to open an account.
Which of these banks can be a good option (ease, fees, safety) ? My objective is to be able to make transfers from a crypto exchange to a business bank account, then to transfer out to a personal bank account. Expected amounts are high 6 figures USD.
I'm still doing some research. It looks like EQI bank is the first to eliminate based on negative feedback from the community.
Some people are saying that I can withdraw 6 figures from kraken to a personal account at a local UAE bank as long as I can prove that the source of the funds is legitimate. Is that true? If yes, then the whole story of a crypto company is just a loss of time and money.
Yes going with a crypto company is just a loss of time and money and here is why:
- The mentioned banks are all Private Banks except Swissquote - this means they want you to use there services of Crypto Custody with min. 1m$ - the Brokerage with this banks is something between 0.5-1.9% as well as a Custody Fee from 0.5% to 1.25% and some have even % transfer fees for sending and receiving Crypto
-> they wouldn't earn anything from you if you just keep using Kraken and use them like a normal retail current account - so you use banks like Sygnum, SEBA and Maerki Baumann only if you want to replace Kraken or other Exchanges with a fully regulated Bank for your Crypto Trading and Custody and for this they charge you a good % - in everything else they are not interested
- Swissquote doesn't provide Crypto Services for Instituional which means you need to trade under a Personal Account Crypto with them - Institutional Account requires 1m$ in Assets with them as well
You have actually only Private Banks like aboth that onboards you with a Passive Holding Company if you use there in-house Pricey Crypto Service or Fiat On-/Off-Ramp banks that works with fully licensed Crypto Companies like Exchanges and OTC Desks with in-house Compliance Team - namely this banks are Bank Frick, Signature Bank, Silvergate Bank, Incore Bank, ClearJunction and some smaller Banks like Fidor.
I have seen no classic retail Bank faciliating what you are looking for with a Dubai Company - as they either don't focus on being used for Crypto Cashout or they are a Private Bank that force you to use there in-house service to charge you a good amount of money -> they will show you the door of course if you use them just for withdrawing from Kraken because they don't earn enough to keep you as a high risk client.
Plot Twist:
All the aboth mentioned banks onboard you even with a RAK ICC, BVI or Panama Company which you get for 1000$ because for this Private Banks the Personal Background and your Wealth is the only fin that matters.
The Crypto Company License would be only worth the money if it would get you access to the local UAE retail Banks -which they don't.
if you ask me - dealing daily with the local UAE Banks - they being Crypto Friendly will happen never - the compliance costs would be just to heavy for them having now already issues with there Indian/Pakistan low quality Compliance faciliating normal low risk Business Case.
Luckily we have a 0% Tax Environment with no Audit or Accounting requirement - if setup right - so you have literally 1000 ways around it - however a DMCC Crypto License in not one of them.