Something significant happened in Washington in 2025 and 2026. Two pieces of legislation — one signed, one on its way — are making it illegal for US-regulated companies to pay passive earnings on dollar-denominated savings products.
For UAE residents, this deserves attention. Not because it affects you directly. Because it signals something important about where this category of savings is headed — and why geography matters.
What the US just decided
The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025. It prohibits payment service issuers — the companies behind digital savings and payment products — from paying passive earnings to their customers. The law drew a hard line: if you're a US-regulated company, you cannot offer savings accounts that generate this kind of return.
In March 2026, the US Senate went further. A bipartisan compromise, agreed on March 20, explicitly bans passive earnings on dollar-denominated savings for any US-incorporated entity. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to advance the measure in late April. Full effect is expected by early 2027.
These two laws together close off a category that has attracted millions of users and hundreds of billions in deposits globally. The US decision isn't that the earnings don't exist — they do. It's that American regulators don't want US companies distributing them to individual savers.
Why UAE is different
The UAE operates under its own framework.
The Abu Dhabi Global Market's financial services rules permit regulated companies to offer savings products that generate earnings from vetted lending markets. These are not the same rules as the United States. They were built with a different philosophy: that financial innovation, supervised appropriately, should be available to consumers — not restricted from them.
This is not a gap in the rules. It is an intentional design choice. Abu Dhabi has spent years building a regulatory environment that attracts financial services companies and allows them to offer products that generate real returns for savers. The UAE is not caught by US legislation. UAE residents are not affected by what Washington passes.
The gap this creates
Here is the practical consequence.
A person living in the US with money in a US-based savings account will, from 2027 onward, find that passive earnings on these products are no longer available from US-regulated companies. They'll be directed to money market funds, Treasury accounts, or similar structures — categories that remain legal.
A UAE resident with access to the right product can earn ~5.4% currently, from fees paid by institutional borrowers in vetted lending markets. No lock-in. No salary routing requirement. No conditions.
That gap — between what US law now permits and what UAE law continues to permit — is real and widening. The US is not closing down the underlying mechanics that generate these earnings. It's just decided that American companies cannot pass them to American customers.
What Vault is built on
Vault is incorporated as Prometheus Labs in Abu Dhabi. We're in the process of obtaining ADGM regulatory approval.
The earnings Vault offers — currently ~5.4% — come from fees paid by institutional borrowers accessing capital through vetted lending markets. This is a UAE product, subject to UAE rules, built for people living in the UAE.
The US regulatory move does something beyond its domestic effect: it validates the model. Regulators in the world's largest financial market looked at this category and concluded it generates enough real return to be worth restricting. That tells you something about what it is capable of — and about the value of building in a jurisdiction that has decided to permit it instead of restrict it.
UAE expats are in the right place at the right time.
The straightforward version
If you live in the UAE, you are not subject to US earnings restrictions. You can access a savings product earning ~5.4% currently — more than any major UAE bank's flexible account, with no lock-in and no conditions.
That window remains open because of where you live.
Join the waitlist at vlt.money.
~5.4% is the current earnings rate, variable, not guaranteed. Vault earnings come from fees paid by institutional borrowers in vetted lending markets. Vault is incorporated in Abu Dhabi and is in the process of obtaining ADGM regulatory approval.
