Liv, Emirates NBD’s digital bank, is adding the USDU stablecoin to its app. It’s a US dollar token registered by the Central Bank of the UAE.
For Liv’s crypto traders, that means a dollar-backed asset sitting next to Bitcoin and their current account in one app. Emirates NBD says it’s the first time a CBUAE-registered, USD-backed stablecoin has been integrated into a UAE digital bank. To mark the integration, Liv is running a three-month campaign with zero-fee crypto trading for 90 days.
The central bank registered USDU under its Payment Token Services Regulation. Universal, the issuer, is regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. According to Universal, every token is backed 1:1 by physical US dollars held with UAE banks, with monthly attestations published for anyone to check. Aquanow, a crypto infrastructure firm regulated by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), supplies the liquidity and rails, and says it has processed more than $130 billion in trading volume.
By integrating the CBUAE-registered USDU stablecoin into the Liv ecosystem, we are not only expanding our digital asset capabilities, but also offering our customers a secure, transparent and regulated bridge to digital assets within their everyday banking app.
Rohit Garg, Group Head of Retail Products and Chief Digital Officer of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates NBD
The companies say USDU isn’t meant as an everyday payment tool in the UAE. Universal’s own USDU page describes it as a token for USD settlement linked to virtual asset activity. Emirates NBD hasn’t said when USDU trading goes live in the app, what fees apply once the promotion ends, or how large trades can be.
USDU itself isn’t new. Universal launched it in January 2026, holding its reserves at Emirates NBD and Mashreq, so both banks now safeguard the token’s dollars and sell it to customers. Liv’s crypto push started in March 2025, when Liv X opened trading in Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, and Cardano, with Aquanow already behind it. Liv also launched a multicurrency Visa card in February. In August, Emirates NBD teamed with an AED 1bn fund (about $272 million) to pilot AI banking and digital assets.
Emirates NBD serves more than 25 million customers across 13 countries, while Liv has close to half a million users. That reach puts USDU in front of far more customers than Liv X alone. The 90-day zero-fee window will show whether Liv’s traders want a regulated dollar token more than another coin.
