Su Zhu, co-founder of Three Arrows, confirms the company’s move to the new crypto center as the UAE continues to portray itself as a crypto-friendly location thanks to a flurry of recent crypto licenses. “Right now, the energy in Dubai’s digital asset industry is electrifying,” Zhu remarked. “I’m excited to meet more technological startups,” she says.
Binance just acquired license to operate in Dubai, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, despite not being a startup. The Abu Dhabi Global Markets Registration Authority recently granted Kraken a license to operate as a virtual asset transaction platform. Bybit relocated its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai at the same time that Crypto.com announced the opening of a regional nerve center in the city, as well as FTX’s Middle East regional office.
The United Arab Emirates has surpassed Singapore as a crypto hotspot.
With the majority of the 170 crypto businesses that applied for a license to operate in Singapore being denied, Dubai is now in a position to break into business areas that were previously drawn to Far Eastern financial centres.
Singapore first opened its doors to cryptocurrency companies in January 2022, but currently prohibits them from promoting to the general public.
The Singapore Monetary Authority has added crypto businesses to its Investor Alert List, which includes “unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been mistakenly interpreted as being licensed or regulated by the MAS.”
Binance was placed on the list in September of last year for allegedly breaking the Singaporean Payment Services Act by soliciting business from Singaporeans.
Singapore aspires to be a “responsible” nation.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore wants to oversee a “responsible” crypto hub that delicately balances the need for regulation with the support of innovation, a balancing act alluded to by MAS managing director Ravi Menon earlier this week, while Dubai recently ratified new laws aimed at positioning itself as a prominent jurisdiction when it comes to cryptocurrencies and related concepts such as Web3 and the metaverse.
“I am very impressed with the vision of Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority,”
So, one of the founders of Three Arrows Capital, Kyle Samani says
“I expect many leading firms to continue to move to Dubai and contribute to the growing digital asset ecosystem,” he adds
