In a recent tweet, Japan based Astar, EVM based smart contract Blockchain platform that seeks to be the future of multichain smart contracts revealed its plans to set up a base in the UAE. Astar is designed to become a hub for smart contracts on Polkadot and is backed by prominent investors that include Binance, Huobi, OKEx, Fenbushi, and others. Sota Watanabe, Founder of Astar, stated in   recent tweet , “ My Abu Dhabi and Dubai business trip   was amazing. Met some government officials, investors and entrepreneurs here in UAE We plan to set up a local office here too. Our future is bright!” In November 2022, Astar Blockchain Network onboarded Japan’s top mobile carrier NTT Docomo to collaborate on mass adoption of Web3 as well as its social implementation. Then in late July 2023, Fireblocks, an enterprise-grade platform for institutional adoption of digital assets, integrated with Astar Network, an EVM and WebAssembly (Wasm) compatible smart contracts platform....

  Komainu, a regulated digital asset custody provider created by Japanese investment bank Nomura, digital asset manager CoinShares and digital asset security company Ledger. has been granted a full virtual assets service provider license by Dubai’s virtual asset regulatory authority in UAE. The license was issued on August 18 th 2023. Prior to that Komainu had received in July 2022 the MVP license from VARA. Komainu will be able to serve qualified retail and institutional clients both as a crypto asset custodian and offer custodial staking services.  "We see tremendous opportunities to scale our business here amid a significant boom in assets driven by fund formation and exchange launches," said Sebastian Widmann, Komainu's Head of Strategy. "Dubai has a vibrant digital asset ecosystem and impressive talent pool, and we are proud to contribute to the growth of this innovative financial hub. Our presence and desirable regulatory status in the region marks anothe...

  Japanese Fintech firm and UAE Al Fardan ventures have partnered to launch a blockchain real estate investment platform.  Japanese Fintech startup, Canaan Advisors and UAE Al Fardan Ventures have partnered to introduce Canaan Advisors’ Zenihub platform, a blockchain blockchain-based real estate investment platform that focuses on fractionalizing properties in emerging markets to the UAE.  The venture will be led by Mr. Mohammed Ebrahim Al Fardan, a global technology leader from the Arab world with more than 33 years of experience, spanning from major multinational technology firms to investment firms, and with a strong and solid global network in gaming, artificial intelligence, Mixed Reality, FinTech, Blockchain, Internet-of-Things, and metaverse. Tokumasa Yamashita, Founder of Canaan Advisors, stated, “There are lots of attractive real estate investment opportunities in the MENA region that are only accessible by a small group of extremely wealthy investors. We look fo...

  UAE based Creta, a Web3 entertainment company developing and publishing video games and a suite of solutions for Web3 gaming, with offices in Dubai, Armenia and Japan has unveiled the gameplay of the upcoming blockchain game Kingdom Under Fire: The Rise and showcases the progress achieved in building its ecosystem of Web3 products, comprised of a one-stop-shop gaming platform, the metaverse, and blockchain gaming community service Super Club. The announcement took place at Creta Summit 2022 in Tokyo, Japan, attended by video games and blockchain aficionados from Japan and overseas, heralding a significant step forward in bringing advancements in Web3 to the realm of video games.   Gameplay footage of the upcoming Kingdom Under Fire: The Rise set the engine of the Summit humming, unraveling the look and feel of the title with a sneak peek into the NFT avatars system, one of the numerous applications of the non-fungible tokens in the game. Ray Nakazato, Chief Creative ...

  Komainu,  a regulated digital asset custody provider created by  Japanese investment bank Nomura, digital asset manager CoinShares and digital asset security company Ledger.  has been granted a provisional regulatory approval from Dubai's   Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority [VARA] to commence operational readiness. The provisional license will enable Komainu to be amongst the first fully regulated digital asset custody services to institutional clients in the region. As per the press release , Komainu acts as key gatekeeper to institutions gaining exposure to the digital asset industry with the provision of secure and regulated digital asset custody services for blockchain and beyond. Over the years, Komainu has established itself as one of the leading digital asset custody providers for institutional clients, providing the same safeguards and protections investors are accustomed to in traditional finance. The Custodian's industry-leading services have been ...