In the fourth annual Chainalysis Global crypto adoption index , identifying countries where the most people are putting the greatest share of their wealth into cryptocurrency, once again Morocco takes lead and is listed as one of the top 20 countries placing an Arab country on the map, while Turkey places the MENA region. The 2023 report states that global adoption is down, but not in one crucial subset of the world. More specifically, there’s one crucial segment of countries where grassroots adoption has seen a much stronger recovery than anywhere else: Lower middle income (LMI) countries. The full report will be out in October, but compared to 2022 , the countries on the top 20 list are still almost the same.   In 2022 Turkey, Egypt and Morocco led not only in MENA   region but globally. All three countries were in the top thirty list of countries with most crypto savings, usage of crypto for remittance payments and permissive crypto regulations. As for Sub Sah...

    In a recent LinkedIn post , Zul Javaid, CEO of UAE Trade Connect, the UAE’s first trade finance platform to combat fraud, announced that they had hired Wissam Massud to lead their international expansion. As per the post, Massud will define market-entry strategies as UAE Trade Connect widens its horizons to GCC, other Middle East, Africa countries. In the post, Javaid states, “We know that UTC's unique #blockchain technology addresses a real-life pain for banks and tradefinance lending everywhere, so we fully expect to be knocking on lots of countries' doors in the coming year.” Prior to this announcement, In May 2023 Zul Javaid coming back fro a recent participation at Global Trade Review conference in KSA had noted that UAE Trade   Connect was interested in offering its solutions to the Saudi Arabian banking sector. As per Javaid, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a robust banking market, and we are very keen to bring our unique blockchain and AI based engi...

    Cardano blockchain suppored venture capitalist, EMURGO Africa and Middle East, has invested $250K in African blockchain carbon market tech company, ChangeBlock. Changeblock, a carbon market technology company, aims to revolutionize the carbon trading landscape by leveraging the power of blockchain technology. With this investment, EMURGO Africa aims to foster sustainable development and environmental responsibility while driving transformative change within the carbon market. "Our investment in ChangeBlock is in line with our commitment to foster the development of climate change reversal technologies and impactful solutions on Cardano’s third-generation and environmentally-sustainable blockchain.” Said Ahmed M. Amer, CEO of EMURGO Africa and Executive Director of EMURGO MEA.   “Together with ChangeBlock, we hope to bring the world’s regulators, business leaders, and global changemakers to foster and double down on their commitment to a global net zero strat...

  In July 2023, the US   Department of Justice on Monday charged a Moroccan national accused of impersonating OpenSea marketplace functions in order to make off with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, including a Bored Ape. Apart from NFTs, Oulahyane is accused of stealing ether (ETH). Prosecutors accused Soufiane Oulahyane, 25, of defrauding a Manhattan resident and others of approximately $450,000 of digital assets in September 2021.   According to the allegations, the DOJ alleges Oulahyane “spoofed” OpenSea, creating a site that mimicked the real OpenSea to trick customers into logging in and swiping their OpenSea credentials in the process. He allegedly bought “paid advertisements on a popular search engine” to boost the fake page. “Oulahyane is alleged to have operated a spoof website to gain unauthorized access to victims’ cryptocurrency wallets to steal their cryptocurrency and NFTs,” FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie Curtis said. The DOJ charged Oulah...

    The Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) has invested $30 million in the $150 million Bedaya Fund II, managed by UAE Shorooq Partners to back early-stage startups with a focus on fintech, digital assets, Web3, Metaverse, DeFi, and other areas. At the launch of Bedaya Fund II, in a press release Shane Shin founding partner at Shorooq Partners stated,   “We have always been early movers, be that robo-advisory, crowdfunding, SME lending, open banking, card issuer processing, and so forth. We believe Web 3.0 models like DeFi, NFT, Metaverse are going to be the key players in the next iteration of online business.” Bedaya Fund II is an early stage venture capital fund managed by Shorooq Partners. The fund is located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and invests in Northern Africa, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan. The fund targets investments in the fintech and software sectors. On Pitchbook they benchmark the Bedaya II fund against EchoVC Cha...

  During Gitex Africa, held in Morocco from 31 May – 2 June 2023, IR4LAB, a Saudi-based company specialized in disruptive technologies such as Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence., announced that it would be expanding its operations into Africa. The announcement was made during Gitex Africa.  The expansion is part of IR4LAB’s commitment to the African continent and their aim to spur innovation in deep technologies and implement use cases utilizing IR4LAB’s Blockchain solution, DocCerts as well as other solutions offered. Mohamed El Kandri, CTO and Co-Founder of IR4LAB, who made the announcement at the event, stated, “We are happy to be expanding into the African market. We believe that Africa’s digital economy will grow and we want to be part of this growth in innovation and digitization, but also building local capabilities right from Morocco to Africa”. According to Mckinsey & Company, Africa’ digital economy should top $712 billion by 2050 fostered by its youth...

  The Arab country of Morocco has made it to the top 10 global list of countries who have a craze for Meme coins according to CoinGecko recent report . For those who haven’t heard of Meme coins they are a crypto genre that has a huge online community which supports the crypto currencies growth. They are sometimes identified with animated character or animal meme images. During the recent cryptocurrency boom, top currencies to gain meme coin status included Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. According to CoinGeck, the meme coin craze in 2023 has been led by the United States (US), India and the United Kingdom (UK), where more than half of the meme coin fans this year are based. Meme coins are also popular in Southeast Asia’s Philippines and Malaysia, Nigeria and Morocco on the African continent, Oceania’s Australia and New Zealand, and Canada. The top 10 countries leading the meme coin craze in 2023 make up 82.9% or the majority of interest in the speculative assets. The US is unsurp...

  UAE Helion Ventures investment, is heading to Beirut Lebanon for a round table meeting on May 11th at Beirut Digital District. Helion launched its operations in Dubai’s DIFC in September 2022 focusing on four major sectors, banking 3.0, healthcare, tokenization of real world assets, green technology, gaming, and fintech in projects across the GCC and African region. The founders, Oliver von Wolff and Bojan al Pinto Brkic, have long-term experience in venture capital and regulated products. Oliver von Wolff, Founder and CEO, at launch stated, “Our products and services perfectly complement the ecosystem for Dubai start-ups, we are a classic equity provider and venture builder with focus on institutional investors”, to which Bojan added “we intend to capitalize on our experience, bringing the investment management know-how to new industries, such are blockchain and fintech, and even gaming and crypto.” It is not surprising to see Helion Ventures off to Beirut, given that they a...

Egyptian founded and UAE based Pravica, a blockchain company offering decentralized private messaging and community group solutions, has secured a funding investment from Adaverse Cardano Ecosystem Accelerator and venture capitalist. Adaverse aggregates entrepreneurs, strategists and mentors building its most robust foundation in Africa and Asia. The investment will be used to support the company’s growth and development, including its efforts to expand its chain-agnostic web3 messaging platform that enables users from different blockchains to communicate in a truly end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), open source and decentralized environment. “Pravica empowers users to take control of their own encryption keys and protect their privacy on the new user-owned Internet” said Mohamed Abdou, CEO of Pravica. “This investment from Adaverse will help us bring our unique approach to secure communication to a wider audience.” In September 2022, Pravica launched the first DcFi ( Decentralized Communic...

  At the end of 2022 the Prime Minister of Algeria, Aimene Benabderrahmane announced that the Central Bank of Algeria is intending to adopt a national digital currency under the name of "Algerian digital dinar" as part of the digitalization of payments. In his speech the Prime Minister stated, “One of the main workshops held at the Central Bank of Algeria, was under the theme digital payments that would allow the adoption of a digital form of money. It would ensure that the issuance, management and control of the digital currency, the Algerian digital dinar would be under the Central Bank.” As reported by the Algeria Press Service these statements were made on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Central Banks Future Challenges conference organized by the Bank of Algeria. "In the digital age, the need to strengthen the security and control of payment systems will undoubtedly be felt, new challenges that the Bank of Algeria must face", added the Prime ...

  In 2022, it appears there is a high level of public interest from the number of online keyword searches for crypto, crypto payments, blockchain, metaverse, NFTs and other related terms. These keywords, for instance, are the top searches in Arab countries. This comes as no surprise as nations in the MENA region were among the list of countries receiving crypto, with the greater region becoming one of the regions that saw the most growth in crypto regulations. According to Chainalysis, while the MENA region is one of the smallest crypto markets, its growth to $566 billion received in cryptocurrency between July 2021 and June 2022 shows adoption is rising rapidly. UAE places 10 th for highest search regions for ‘crypto’ As per Google Trends , there were high inquiries for the term “crypto” in the country from December 2021 to December 2022. The high volume of searches for “crypto” in the Arab state placed it at 10th, followed by Morocco at 11th place, Lebanon (17th) and Tunis...

    On December 20 th , the Central Bank of Morocco represented by its governor Abdellatif Jouahri announced in Rabat Morocco that the draft crypto bill to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies is ready. The announcement was carried out at the press briefing following BAM's 4th and final quarterly meeting of 2022. Jouahri stressed that the full draft is ready to put in place a proper regulatory framework. Jouahri stated, "Discussions are to be held with all stakeholders, including the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority (AMMC) and the Insurance and Social Security Supervisory Authority (ACAPS),"  "We proceeded to a specific definition of the cryptocurrency and prepared a general public survey that details the specifics and use of this virtual currency in Morocco," he added. In June 2022, The Central Bank of Morocco, Bank Al Maghrib, announced during its second quarterly meeting that it would be introducing a cryptocurrency bill soon. Abdul Latif Al Ja...

  UAE based Blockchain enterprise, Shaariq.com, an end-to-end real estate platform of Vision Tech has partnered with Pakistan-headquartered JK&S Developers, a real estate arm of the renowned Saif Group. to facilitate sales in JK&S Developers’ highly anticipated project D.I. Khan New City. Shaariq.com will leverage its enterprise blockchain capabilities to ensure secure, transparent, and seamless transactions. Shaariq.com will also ensure D.I. Khan New City becomes an early mover in adopting blockchain at an enterprise level. Shaariq.com will create a digital twin of the project in the metaverse to enable efficient urban planning and optimize the delivery of public services such as healthcare and groceries. NFT linked transactions on the blockchain will bring greater security, transferability, and future readiness. D.I. Khan New City will also characterize AR-VR and AI applications on multiple fronts. Dubbed the “Crown of Pakistan”, the D.I. Khan New City is a hybrid dev...

    It is not surprising that a Blockchain Fintech startup such as Abu Dhabi based Pyypl would raise $20 million in its Series B round from new and existing investors. Since its inception UAE based Pyypl with offices out of Hub71, has not only advocated financial inclusion but has built its technology to ensure it. It was name the one of the top 37 crypto startups to watch in 2022 by Techround UK. About 22 per cent of the GCC's population is unbanked, compared with 60 per cent in North Africa, according to a report by consultancy Strategy&. Blockchain enabled Pyypl provides digital payments and financial services for all smartphone users to carry out online transactions, without the need for a bank account or credit card.   Pyypl uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for regulatory compliance, Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF). They are a full blockchain-native financial services backend-platform, ...

  UK based Blockchain company Valereum has received consent from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (“GFSC”) to complete the acquisition of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (“GSX”). Valereum will utilize GSX to expand access of early stage and small cap companies in the Middle East, India and Africa to European Capital. In early 2022, Valereum stated that it would be purchasing 90% of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) to create the world's first bourse where shares and crypto assets can be traded Valereum at the time stated that GSX would the first fully regulated bridge that links the fiat and crypto markets. As they noted at the time, "This will give listed instruments on the GSX access to a regulated pool of crypto capital that is not available anywhere else, and it will give cryptocurrency holders the ability to have a direct, verifiable holding in fiat securities." The recent press release notes that there is a significant gap in the available small cap m...

  The central bank of Egypt has once again reiterated its warning against dealing in any types of cryptocurrencies, saying that crypto is risky, highly volatile, and is used in financial crimes and e-piracy. In the Egypt independent article , the Central Bank of Egypt will fine anyone who violates the Law No 194 of 2020 which prohibits issuing, trading, promoting cryptocurrencies, operating crypto exchanges or any other related activities. The Central Bank will fine violators up to $516,000 ( 10 million LE) or face imprisonment. The CBE statement reads, “Whoever violates this shall be imprisoned, and fined no less than one million pounds and no more than LE10 million ($516,340), or one of these two penalties.” The Egyptian central bank issued a similar warning about cryptocurrencies in January 2018, specifically naming Bitcoin. At that time the Central Bank had noted, “Cryptocurrencies are not backed by any tangible assets and are not supervised by any regulators worldwide, a...

  WadzPay,  blockchain payments provider operating in the UAE, has teamed up with DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) Fintech Hive and Emirates NBD accelerator program, to offer payment features in the metaverse. This is a huge undertaking given that the metaverse economy is predicated to hit $13 trillion by 2030.   Moreover this is especially significant in the UAE given that Dubai announced its metaverse strategy in July 2022. As per the strategy Dubai wants to attract 5000 blockchain and metaverse companies to the city by 2027. DIFC has been working through its regulatory arm DFSA to ensure the proper regulatory environment for crypto tokens, security tokens, and is considered by VARA as one of the entities that can house regulated companies in this sphere. Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive VP of DIFC Fintech Hive was quoted saying, “The 10-week global accelerator programme for metaverse start-ups reaffirms our commitment to support Dubai’s ambition to be among t...

  UAE Mulk International has been granted an exclusive license to establish a blockchain and digital assets special economic zone in Zimbabwe. This comes in parallel with Mulk International pledge to develop a 500 million USD Cyber City Hi tech park near the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. The project Zim Cyber City, will facilitate special window clearance of blockchain and digital assets licenses and bank accounts, cutting-edge office spaces and high-end residential living for all individuals and entities operating and living in the community. Owner of Mulk International, Dubai based billionaire Shaji Ul Mulk has pledged to fund the project. As per an interview with Zimbabwean media, Ul Mulk stated, “The project will include villas, cyber technology offices, shopping malls, and the tallest tower in Africa the Mulk Towers all constructed on 2.5 million square metres of land.” The first phase of the project is expected to be complete in the next two years. Local businessman Temp...