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Eric Trump tells Abu Dhabi bitcoin will hit $1m

President-elect Donald Trump is planning to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”, his son Eric Trump said in a keynote speech in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Speaking at the Bitcoin Mena event being held at Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC centre, the younger Trump said he was “confident” that bitcoin would hit $1 million. […]

An illustration of Donald Trump holding Bitcoin is displayed at a cryptocurrency store in Hong Kong after Bitcoin's value reached $100,000

Trump’s crypto team in Abu Dhabi for bitcoin conference

Several key staff in President-elect Donald Trump’s new cryptocurrency venture are in Abu Dhabi today for the largest bitcoin gathering in the Gulf region, Bitcoin Mena 2024. Speakers include Trump’s son Eric and billionaire Steve Witkoff, the new White House envoy for the Middle East and co-founder of World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto platform […]

Patrick Meaney, head of enforcement at the DFSA, says hedge funds bring associated companies with them when they join the DIFC Video length: 03:05

Hedge funds and wealth managers ‘are a boon’ for DIFC

The DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority) the independent regulatory agency that oversees financial services in the Dubai International Financial Centre, approved more than 60 new companies in the first half of 2024. Patrick Meaney, head of enforcement at DFSA, says that many of them are wealth management companies or hedge funds, which is a “boon […]

Donald Trump appeared at a Bitcoin event in Nashville, Tennessee, in July. A Republican government is viewed as being more crypto-friendly than a Democrat government

Bitcoin price passes $70,000 on US election speculation

The price of Bitcoin reached $72,479 this week, the first time that the cryptocurrency has gone above the $70,000 price mark since June.  Although still below its March peak of $73,803.25, the world’s most prominent digital currency may have headroom to rise further. “Bitcoin has rallied more than 65 percent year-to-date, with prices surging above […]

Cryptocurrency exchange company OKX has launched operations for retail and institutional investors in the UAE

Crypto giant OKX bullish on UAE launch

Cryptocurrency exchange company OKX has launched operations for retail and institutional investors in the UAE.  UAE residents will be able to deposit and withdraw AED from all Emirates bank accounts and trade more than 280 cryptocurrencies and 480 trading pairs. The Seychelles-based crypto trading platform has more than 50 million customers in 200 international markets according […]

A new UAE VAT exemption will boost investment funds, digital or crypto-related services and foreign direct investment

UAE VAT exemptions to boost funds, crypto and FDI

New exemptions by the UAE on value added tax for investment funds and digital or crypto-related services will strengthen the Gulf state’s position as a financial hub and help attract more foreign business, experts have said. The Federal Tax Authority’s amendments announced this week exempt the management of investment funds from 5 percent VAT from […]

The National Bank of Bahrain says its bitcoin fund will protect investors from losses

Bahraini bank launches Gulf’s first bitcoin investment fund

The National Bank of Bahrain has launched a bitcoin-pegged structured investment product, aimed at targeting growing demand for the cryptocurrency among institutional investors in the Gulf countries.  The fund, developed in partnership with digital asset firm ARP Digital, will offer investors access to any rise in bitcoin’s price, capped within a predetermined threshold, and guarantee […]

Vara's CEO says cryptocurrency interest is from 'sophisticated players that take regulation seriously'

Dubai’s crypto regulator defends ‘robust’ approval process

Dubai is viewed as a crypto-friendly destination, but the head of the regulator overseeing the sector has told AGBI its processes are rigorous and only a small fraction of applicants are approved. “It’s probably fair to say at the beginning there was a perception from the market that it would be straightforward to get a […]

Ahmed bin Sulayem told AGBI that AI impacts every sector within DMCC Video length: 03:30

Dubai AI leaders call for global regulations

Digital economy leaders in the UAE called for the global unification of artificial intelligence regulations at the launch of DMCC’s AI Centre last week.  Dubai issued a universal blueprint for AI earlier this year, but a unified framework governing the growing AI technology sector is still lacking.  “How can you disregard the artificial intelligence sector […]

Turkey stablecoin Video length: 04:56

Turks turn to crypto to ‘escape’ currency fluctuations

As blockchain platform Tether introduces the first dirham-pegged stablecoin – cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to a currency, commodity or financial instrument – in the UAE, AGBI looks into how unstable economies such as Turkey have used cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation. Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies for payments in 2021, the same year […]

Animoca subsidiary The Sandbox has partnerships in Saudi Arabia and with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority

Hong Kong’s Animoca considers Gulf bourses

Animoca Brands, a major Web3 and crypto gaming company valued at nearly $6 billion, is considering a public listing in 2025, with the Gulf and Hong Kong as potential venues. The company’s investors include heavyweights such as Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the Saudi Arabia government’s Neom project, which injected $50 million into it last year. […]

BitOasis crypto Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, Cofounders, CoinDCX

Indian crypto exchange buys UAE’s BitOasis

CoinDCX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in India, has bought UAE-based crypto exchange BitOasis for an undisclosed amount. CoinDCX co-founder Sumit Gupta said the move would “establish an even more formidable foothold across the Mena region”. The Middle East-focused BitOasis, founded in 2016 by Ola Doudin, Tarek Kaylani and Daniel Robenek, has processed more than $6 […]

The UAE's regulations are designed to exclude fraudulent crypto companies and attract legitimate businesses

UAE introduces regulations to clean up crypto market

The UAE has taken steps towards regulating its payments sector with the introduction of Payment Token Services Regulation in an attempt to push out fraudulent crypto companies and attract legitimate businesses. The new regulations introduced by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) focus heavily on stablecoins – digital currencies pegged to a real-world asset […]

'We need to be extra cautious, but... also opportunistic', says Bahrain FinTech Bay CEO Bader Sater about the country's approach to crypto

Bahrain remains cautious but crypto pursuit advances

Bahrain will not sacrifice its position as a trusted financial centre as it chases cryptocurrency millions, according to the boss of fintech incubator Bahrain FinTech Bay. Earlier this month the kingdom’s central bank gave BitOasis Bahrain, a regional crypto trading platform, a so-called Category 2 crypto-asset services licence. The regulatory approval means that the broker-dealer […]

Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey's finance minister, did not reveals the new tax rates. Stock market earnings were formerly taxed at 10%

Turkey to tax crypto and stock market earnings

Turkey is planning to tax income earned from cryptocurrency and stock market trades, as the government seeks new revenue streams to help shore up its public finances. The measures were part of a package unveiled by the finance minister Mehmet Şimşek at a gathering of senior officials of the ruling Justice and Development Party on […]

The funds stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Rain were converted into Bitcoin and Ethereum to disguise their origin

Crypto exchange Rain suffers $15m hack

Rain, a cryptocurrency exchange regulated in both the UAE and Bahrain, has confirmed a serious hack resulting in losses reportedly nearing $15 million.  The exchange said in a statement on its website on Tuesday that customer funds remain secure despite the incident.  The security breach occurred on April 29 and was first detected by blockchain […]

A woman using a Bitcoin ATM in Hong Kong. The Mena region accounts for 7% of global cryptocurrency volumes

Gulf asset managers remain wary of resurgent bitcoin

Gulf asset managers and institutional investors remain reluctant to invest in bitcoin, despite the cryptocurrency’s resurgence over the past year. The Middle East and North Africa accounted for 7 percent – or $390 million – of global crypto volumes in the 12 months to June 30, 2023, according to Chainalysis. Turkey made up nearly half, […]

Binance CEO Richard Teng told AGBI the company spent $213m on compliance measures in 2023

Binance clamps down on suspicious UAE crypto trades

Binance has blocked hundreds of thousands of suspicious cryptocurrency transactions in the UAE as it ramps up compliance efforts, senior executives have told AGBI. The business, which is the world’s largest crypto exchange, received nearly 60,000 law enforcement requests from governments around the world in 2023 after heightened regulatory scrutiny. Meera Judge, the Dubai-based director […]

Investor Tim Draper told AGBI the US must 'swing back to freedom' to avoid losing innovation to countries such as the UAE

Tim Draper: UAE benefits from US crypto ‘overregulation’

Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has criticised the US for its restrictive stance on cryptocurrency, claiming it is driving innovators towards more encouraging and friendlier markets such as the UAE. The Gulf state is actively developing regulatory frameworks to lure new forms of business, amid intense regional economic competition. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have set […]

Crypto miners have been drawn to the Gulf for its low electricity costs and comparatively unrestricted land use rules

Crypto miners see ‘enormous potential’ in the Gulf

With cryptocurrencies edging up again after last weekend’s “halving” – in which the rewards Bitcoin miners get for solving problems is cut in two to maintain scarcity – these are heady days for holders of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Bitcoin miners have been attracted to the Gulf by cheap electricity and established infrastructure.   “GCC […]

A young Cristiano Ronaldo fan pictured at an Al Nassr Saudi Pro League match. The star has approximately 849 million social media followers

Binance to launch new Ronaldo NFTs ‘soon’ amid legal case

Cristiano Ronaldo and the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance are to launch a fourth set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) “soon”, as the footballer faces a $1 billion lawsuit for promoting the company. The Al Nassr and Portugal forward signed a deal with Binance in 2022 to create NFTs – digital collectibles – using his “CR7” […]