Dubai Court Legalizes Crypto Salaries

The case involved a plaintiff who claimed that he had not received his agreed-upon salary, termination compensation, and additional promised bonuses.

The employment contract stipulated that the employee was to be paid a monthly amount in fiat currency, along with an additional 5,250 EcoWatt tokens (from the EcoWatt project, focused on creating a marketplace for renewable energy and eco-initiatives). The dispute centered on the employer's failure to pay the tokens over six months and the unlawful termination of the plaintiff.

The court's decision favored the former employee, ordering the employer to pay the owed amount in EcoWatt tokens (without converting them to fiat), thereby affirming the legality of using crypto assets for salary payments within employment contracts.

This ruling illustrates a shift in judicial interpretation of crypto assets under labor law. In 2023, the court dealt with an identical issue where the employment contract included payment in EcoWatt tokens, which were withheld by the employer. The court then ordered compensation based only on the nominal fiat salary, ignoring the tokens since the employee failed to prove their value or provide a clear method of fiat conversion.

Despite both cases being grounded in the same laws (Article 912 of the UAE Civil Transactions Law and Federal Law No. (33) of 2021), the recent decision saw a change in interpretation, with the judge ruling that the employer must deliver the exact number of tokens promised, without determining their monetary value.