In a recent press release, Bahrain has granted its first five Golden licenses and Whampoa Group,  a multi-family office with investments in global tech firms, and its digital bank has received one of these licenses. The holders of Golden licenses are eligible if they will create more than 500 local jobs, or make an investment of over $50 million in their first years in the Kingdom while contributing to strengthening the Kingdom's overall development. The Kingdom of Bahrain has granted the first five Golden Licenses to projects presented by Citi, Eagle Hills Diyar W.L.L, Infracorp, Saudi Telecommunication Company (stc), and Whampoa Group. With a collective investment of upwards of USD 1.4 billion into Bahrain, the greenfield projects and expansions are expected to create more than 1,400 job opportunities within the next three years in support of the Kingdom's Economic Recovery Plan goals. The licenses were presented at the headquarters of each company to Michel Sawaya, Ba

  UAE based WadzPay , an interoperable blockchain-based technology provider, has launched the WadzPay 2.0 which it believes will redefine the landscape of virtual asset-based transactions. WadzPay 2.0 provides a unique new architecture primarily based on the Algorand blockchain with inbuilt support for several others such as Ethereum, Tron, Avalanche and several others to be added. WadzPay 2.0 construct is designed in line with evolving regulations and needs of banks, financial institutions, telcos and central banks.   Anish Jain, founder and group CEO of WadzPay, stated, “Blockchain is already disrupting global finance, and with WadzPay 2.0, we are bringing a slew of capabilities that will transform digital currency payments. This enhanced product line encompasses issuance, acquiring, remittance, central bank digital currency (CBDC) and tokenization, providing a true one-stop solution for the industry. This is a leap forward in the blockchain payments ecosystem. WadzPay customers

  Recently a press release came out discussing the launch of the Gulf Crypto bank which is espoused to be an integrated banking system for both fiat currencies and digital currencies. As per the release users can withdraw, deposit, swap, do external and internal transfers immediately, securely and with minimal fees. Users will also be provided with a visa or mastercard that can be used at any ATM or online. Another noteworthy feature is the ability to withdraw  crypto assets to any external wallet by creating a wallet inside your bank account.  The Bank will also offer personal and corporate loans based on the Islamic laws. They state that they are participating in the Fintech Crypto Summit in Bahrain as a diamond sponsor and are seeking investment for their coin, GulfCoin. The only summit being mentioned in Bahrain on February 15 th is the Fintech and Crypto Summit. Their website doesn’t mention any speakers or sponsors and the event is supposedly only two weeks away! Looking

    Singaporean ChainUp Group, a global blockchain technology solutions provider, has expanded its operations into the UAE and MENA region with a sales office in Dubai. The company aims to provide blockchain solutions to businesses across the Middle East region. The new sales office in Dubai has since begun operations and seeks to form new partnerships with enterprises in the region. The team will work to curate blockchain solutions to fulfill the needs of prospective clients for them to operate more efficiently and securely. ChainUp Group has a foothold across multiple locations around the world including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the United States. The company   offers a suite of blockchain solutions covering infrastructure development and ecosystem support including digital asset trading systems, NFT trading systems, wallet solutions, liquidity solutions, Web3 infrastructure, digital assets custody, and more. Ms. Tan Bin Ru, Deputy CEO & COO of ChainUp Group comment

  Animoca’s brand, the Sandbox announced during the 62 edition of the True Global Ventures Conference that it will be bringing its metaverse strategy to Dubai, with the ‘Dubaiverse’. It will work with local partners including Khaleej Times media outlet.  Animoca Brand’s Dubai-themed metaverse will follow the blueprint of its subsidiary Sandbox’s Hong Kong “Mega City,’ a gaming metaverse and virtual cultural hub based on the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong. As per the news on  Forkast , the    Dubaiverse will be built through local partnerships, In doing so, the Hong Kong-based blockchain game specialist will partner with firms in the film, music, entertainment, acting, finance, real estate, and gaming industries. Sebastien Borget, cofounder and chief operating officer (COO) of Sandbox Paris, added, “Other planned location-based metaverses are in the works for Singapore, Korea, and Turkey.” Dubai’s virtual asset regulator was the first regulator in the world to purchase a piece of land

  According to a recent report by FDI markets published in FDI Intelligence, UAE topped the list of countries with most crypto related FDI projects. UAE had a whopping 15 projects making it number one. It was followed by the USA which attracted 11 crypto projects; Brazil came in third with 7 projects, followed by UK, Lithuania at 4th place with 5 crypto projects, then Singapore in fifth place with 4 projects, followed by Canada, Australia, ( 3 projects each) and France, Sweden with 2 projects  Some 98 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects were announced in crypto related activities in the first half of 2022, an increase of 145% from the same period in 2021. This number was higher than any pre-recorded database since 2016. It was also double the figure for the whole of 2021. Most of the companies who announced FDI projects in H1 of 2022 were those that involve crypto services, such as crypto exchanges, who set up new physical presence in foreign countries. This is true of UAE w

So Now the UAE is being dubbed the Wall Street of Crypto. The terminology was first coined by no other than CZ (Zhao Changpeng) the Founder of Binance, whom a BloomBerg article noted as saying that the UAE is definitely the headquarters of Binance. This is the first time in the history of Binance where it actually announces it even has a headquarter. It would seem that the Wall Street of Crypto has ousted both France and Bahrain as the base for Binance, as well as Singapore which Binance retreated from several months ago. In the meantime Binance is actually bringing on Wall Street veterans such as Vishal Sacheendran, the former New York Mellon Bank executive who now holds the position of UAE based director for the Middle East and North Africa.   Richard Teng the head of Middle East and North Africa at Binance says more appointments from the banking sector will follow. So far the UAE has granted licenses to a handful of international and global crypto exchanges including the late