MGX makes $2bn crypto investment in Binance

Reuters/Abdel Hadi Ramahi

• UAE embraces stablecoin
• First institutional Binance deal
• 1000 staff employed in UAE

UAE technology investment company MGX has invested $2 billion-worth of stablecoins into Binance, the world’s largest exchange for digital tokens by trading volume and users, according to a statement.

Binance said on Wednesday that acquisition of a minority stake in MGX is the “biggest-ever” injection of funds into a crypto company, the largest investment ever paid out in cryptocurrencies, and the first institutional investment into Binance.

Stablecoins are digital tokens which peg their value to fiat money, commodities or other underlying assets. The UAE company did not disclose the size of the Binance share purchased, or what stablecoins were involved in the transaction.

Ahmed Yahia, MGX’s managing director and chief executive, said in a statement that the need for “secure, compliant, and scalable” blockchain infrastructure and products is growing as cryptocurrencies enter the institutional domain.  

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced the establishment of a national cryptocurrency reserve encompassing five coins — bitcoin, ethereum, ripple, solana and cardano. 

The reveal has sparked investor interest in digital tokens in the UAE and around the world, though the price of bitcoin has been seesawing amid larger market volatility and economic uncertainty. 

Binance has strong roots in the UAE, where it employs approximately 1,000 out its 5,000 global staff, according to the Wednesday press release.

Its CEO Richard Teng formerly headed the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Authority. Its founder and first chief executive Changpeng Zhao — who resigned in 2023 as part of the multi-billion-dollar settlement of an anti-money laundering case from the US Department of Justice — has UAE residency rights.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission suspended its own suit against Binance in February as the new, more crypto-friendly Trump administration launched a review of the industry and its regulations.

MGX is a tech-focused investor that was founded by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and G42, a business which focuses on AI development and is itself backed by Mubadala.

• Currency woes underpin Mena preference for stablecoin
• MGX could use Trump deal as springboard to global stage
• UAE’s MGX part of OpenAI’s $6.6bn fund raising

MGX has been on a investment spree since its founding just over a year ago. It is a party to a recently-unveiled project with OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build between $100 billion and $500 billion of data centres in the US.

Much like artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies are an important priority for the UAE, which aims to establish itself as a global fintech hub.

Just last month, Mubadala was revealed to hold nearly $440 million invested in a bitcoin exchange-traded fund by Blackrock.

According to Mohammed Soliman of McLarty Associates and the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, MGX’s $2 billion investment in Binance is a “head turner”. 

“It’s not how you’d expect a massive investment to go down, but it screams confidence in crypto’s future,” Soliman told AGBI. “The UAE is basically telling the world that stablecoins aren’t just a niche — they’re ready to handle big-time transactions.”