DubaiCoin surges 1,000% and nosedives in one day as emirate’s government claims new crypto is ‘scam’

A new cryptocurrency, which came under the self-explanatory name of DubaiCoin saw a wild surge and a dramatic nosedive within 24 hours. The heavy fall came shortly after reports alleged it has nothing to do with the city of Dubai.

Somewhere in the background of the bleeding crypto market, the digital currency was propelled above 1,000% from $0.17 to $1.13 on Thursday, making a huge gain as market leaders like bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and others had all declined by about 10% overnight.

The astonishing surge was due to a bogus statement alleging that DubaiCoin had been created by ArabianChain Technology, a company based in the United Arab Emirates. The claim was circulated via a website called DubPay, access to which is currently denied.

According to the now-defunct website, DubaiCoin was expected to be used “to pay for a range of goods and services both in-store and online," with the coin to replace traditional bank-backed currencies.

“Circulation of the new digital currency will be controlled by both the city itself and authorized brokers,” the statement claimed.

The growth of the token caused suspicion from the Dubai Electronic Security Centre, which issued a warning to investors, debunking the claim about DubaiCoin’s new status, and saying the website it had originated from was a front.

According to the state-backed regulator, DubaiCoin has nothing to do with the city emirate.

ArabianChain also tweeted a warning, denying that it had made any claims of the kind about the cryptocurrency and confirming that the website promoting it was fake. DubaiCoin was removed from market-tracking platforms immediately after the warnings were voiced.

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