The landmark ruling by the Dubai Court of First Instance establishes cryptocurrency as a legitimate means of payment for wages under employment contracts.

This decision, which came out of case number 1739 of 2024, signifies a major change in the UAE's legal position regarding digital currencies.

The decision has been lauded by legal experts, such as Irina Heaver of the UAE law company NeosLegal, who described it as a "progressive approach" that reflects the changing character of financial transactions in the Web3 economy.

Crypto Recognition Unveiled in Employment Dispute
An employment dispute including the plaintiff's claims for unpaid pay, wrongful termination compensation, and other benefits was the subject of the legal struggle that culminated in this historic decision.

A monthly pay in fiat money and 5,250 EcoWatt tokens, a cryptocurrency, were both laid out in the job contract.

After six months of nonpayment, the employee took legal action by suing the company for the bitcoin component of their income.


The employee was favored by the Dubai Court of First Instance in its 2024 verdict, which acknowledged the bitcoin payment as legitimate according to the employment contract.

According to the court's ruling, the company must pay the employee's wage in EcoWatt tokens as agreed upon in the contract, rather than demanding their conversion to fiat money.

The court's previous position in a comparable case in 2023 was to reject the claim for cryptocurrency wages since there was no clear way to value the tokens. This ruling represents a substantial change from that position.

Commenting on the decision, Irina Heaver made the observation,

"The court's acknowledgment of the changing character of financial transactions within the Web3 economy is demonstrated by this decision, which reflects the growing acceptance of cryptocurrency in employment contracts."

Furthermore, she emphasized that the verdict represents a significant recognition of the value creation and distribution processes in the Web3 domain, where workers are often paid using a mix of fiat currency and project tokens.

Cryptocurrency Is Now Legally Recognized in Dubai
Including EcoWatt tokens in an employment contract was the subject of a comparable lawsuit heard by the Dubai Court in 2023.

The plaintiff failed to provide a clear and dependable way for turning the cryptocurrency into fiat money, therefore the court decided against the employee's claim, even if the contract contained cryptocurrency payment.

The judge ruled that,

"The Court of Cassation has held that the trial court has the jurisdiction to determine the commencement, length, and consequences of an employment connection. Since the claimant failed to provide any proof of the digital currency's worth, the court will not consider it.

But the court's early stance changed dramatically in the 2024 decision.

This time around, the court really acknowledged that cryptocurrency may be a legitimate form of payment, so they made sure that the agreed-upon compensation was paid in EcoWatt tokens instead of fiat money.

The UAE Civil Transactions Law (Article 912), upon which the court's ruling was based, establishes that employees have a right to demand timely payment of salaries from their employers.

In its ruling,

"The court has ordered the respondent to pay the claimant the value of her wages in EcoWatt tokens, as the respondent failed to provide evidence of payment in any other form."

There may be more widespread use of cryptocurrencies in many industries as a result of this court's judgment, which is anticipated to promote the use of digital currencies in regular UAE financial activities.

There are tens of thousands of individuals employed by more than three thousand bitcoin firms in the United Arab Emirates, and this verdict offers much-needed security to their workers.