Neither statement mentions mining. We found no published Saudi rule that makes bitcoin mining legal, and none that makes it a crime. The honest position is this: crypto is unregulated and officially warned against in Saudi Arabia, and the risk of mining sits with you.
Keep Hashing supplies mining hardware from Dubai. We do not give legal advice. For your own case, speak to a lawyer licensed in Saudi Arabia before you buy, import or run a machine.
Is crypto legal in Saudi Arabia? What the regulators have published
Three statements from Saudi authorities matter here. Each is dated, and each is still published on the authority’s own website.
12 August 2018: the SAMA and CMA committee warning
The Standing Committee for Awareness on Dealing in Unauthorized Securities Activities in the Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) published its warning on both regulators’ websites. Its headline reads: “The virtual currencies are not regulated inside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia” SAMA, 12 August 2018.
The same statement, on the CMA’s site, says bitcoin is not approved as an official currency in the Kingdom and that “no parties or individuals are licensed for such practices by regulators in the kingdom” CMA, 12 August 2018. It warns citizens and residents against trading virtual currency because it sits outside government supervision. The committee was formed by royal decree, with the CMA in the chair and SAMA among its members.
20 August 2019: the Ministry of Finance warning
A year later the MOF warned against dealing or investing in virtual currencies, including cryptocurrencies, because they are “not recognized by legal entities in the kingdom” Ministry of Finance, 20 August 2019.
The ministry said virtual currencies are outside the regulatory framework, are not traded by financial institutions inside the Kingdom, and carry fraud and price risk. It added that anyone who uses the Kingdom’s name, the Saudi riyal or the national emblem to market a virtual currency will face legal action.
15 July 2020: SAMA restates the committee’s remit
In a July 2020 warning about unlicensed forex firms, SAMA described the same committee’s job as including warnings against marketing unlicensed digital currencies and dealing in unlicensed virtual currencies SAMA, 15 July 2020. The committee still exists, and virtual currencies are still in its scope.
What none of them says
None of these statements mentions mining or mining hardware. None sets out a penalty for an individual who holds or mines bitcoin. In our checks up to 30 September 2026, we found no later statement on the SAMA, CMA or MOF websites that changes the 2018 and 2019 position.
Is bitcoin mining legal in Saudi Arabia?
No published Saudi rule we found answers that question directly. So the answer is not “yes”, and it is not “no”. It is unclear.
Mining is not named anywhere. But what a miner produces is bitcoin, and the statements above warn against dealing in virtual currencies and say no one is licensed for such practices. A miner in Saudi Arabia would run with no licence available, no regulator overseeing the activity, and an output the authorities have warned people not to deal in.
“Warned against” is not the same as “prohibited”. The English texts are warnings, and the one explicit enforcement line, from the MOF, covers marketing that misuses Saudi national symbols. Equally, the absence of a ban is not permission.
In practice, what the regulators have said means no local business is licensed to deal in virtual currencies, local financial institutions do not trade them, and there is no Saudi regulator to turn to if something goes wrong. How this applies to you is a question for a Saudi-licensed lawyer, not for a supplier’s web page.
Why the internet disagrees
Search this question and you will get “illegal”, “legal and regulated” and “grey area” on the same page of results.
Some reports from 2018 quoted the committee as saying bitcoins are illegal in the Kingdom (reported by Lexology, 15 August 2018). The English text now on the SAMA and CMA websites says instead that bitcoin is not approved as an official currency; the CMA page shows a last-modified date of 9 September 2018. We have not compared this with the Arabic original.
Other pages go further in both directions. Lightspark’s guide (updated 2025) calls crypto effectively illegal. A MEXC blog entry (8 August 2025) says mining is legal and regulated under SAMA frameworks; we found no SAMA publication that supports that. The US Library of Congress’s legal blog (January 2025) reported that Saudi Arabia had no specific crypto legislation as of December 2024.
Stablecoin headlines add to the noise. Al Arabiya reported on 6 November 2025 that a Saudi minister said the government plans stablecoins with the CMA and SAMA. That concerns future regulated stablecoins, not bitcoin or mining, and we found no published rulebook.
Trust the dated statement from the authority itself, and treat everything else as opinion. The UAE is a useful contrast, because it has published rules that name mining: see the UAE position.
The state-level mining stories
Stories that Saudi Arabia, or a Saudi state company, is mining bitcoin come up regularly. Two are worth knowing.
In 2021, reports claimed that Aramco would start mining bitcoin. On 2 August 2021 Aramco called those claims “completely false and inaccurate” Aramco, 2 August 2021.
In November 2025, crypto news sites repeated a social media post claiming Saudi Arabia had announced it would begin mining bitcoin (reported by BBX, 19 November 2025). In our checks we found no statement from a Saudi government body confirming it.
Neither story changes the position for an individual. State-level interest, if it exists, is not a licence for anyone else.
Importing a machine into Saudi Arabia
If you want the machine in Saudi Arabia, you are the importer, and the compliance steps are yours.
SASO, the Saudi standards body, issues certificates of conformity. They include a Gulf Conformity Mark for low-voltage electrical devices SASO, Certificates of Conformity. An ASIC miner is an electrical device. Ask your clearing agent whether your shipment needs a conformity certificate or SABER registration.
Customs duty is set by ZATCA. Brokers do not all classify these machines under the same HS heading, so ask your clearing agent which heading and duty rate they will use before you ship. Clearing customs does not settle whether you can mine with the machine.
If you are a Saudi buyer talking to a Dubai supplier
What stays with you: the decision to mine at all, import compliance, any registration your situation needs, and what you do with anything the machine mines.
What we do: supply new hardware and bench-tested used units, with the test evidence before you pay. See ASIC miners for Saudi buyers and tested used units. We ship to Saudi Arabia, quoted per shipment; customs clearance and duties are yours.
The other route is hosting in the UAE. Saudi buyers can place machines in our UAE hosting. Under hosting you own the machine and receive your own pool payouts. The machine stays in the UAE, so the Saudi import step does not arise. It does not settle the Saudi question about dealing in what the machine mines. That stays with your lawyer.
Sources checked for this page
| Statement | Authority | Date | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| “The virtual currencies are not regulated inside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia” | Standing committee chaired by the CMA, published by SAMA | 12 Aug 2018 | sama.gov.sa |
| Same statement; no parties or individuals licensed | Capital Market Authority (CMA) | 12 Aug 2018 (page last modified 9 Sept 2018) | cma.gov.sa |
| Warning against dealing or investing in virtual currencies | Ministry of Finance (MOF) | 20 Aug 2019 | mof.gov.sa |
| Committee remit includes unlicensed digital currencies | Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) | 15 Jul 2020 | sama.gov.sa |
| Aramco denies bitcoin mining reports | Saudi Aramco | 2 Aug 2021 | aramco.com |
| Certificates of conformity, including the Gulf mark for low-voltage devices | Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) | Page last modified 28 Sept 2025 | saso.gov.sa |