In a recent LinkedInpost, MENA crypto exchange CoinMENA fully regulated in Bahrain came out with a new marketing campaign announcing that as a licensed exchange it is serving more than 250,000 users across 8 countries including Bahrain, UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt. Basing their marketing campaign on the concept of trading on a licensed exchange, CoinMENA is calling crypto traders to trade with them given they unlike other unlicensed exchanges are licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, with a category 3 license. This campaign comes weeks after UAE’s BitOasis lost its active status for its MVP operational license after VARA, Dubai’s virtual asset regulatory authority, issued a market notificiation stating that it had taken enforcement actions against BitOasis and advised investors and consumers that BitOasis’s MVP operational license is under review for not meeting mandated conditions. BitOasis had been the first crypto exchange to receive an MVP operat...

  CZ the Co-Founder of Binance has taken to twitter after word came out that the U.S. SEC ( Securities and Commodities Authority) has sued Binance US and its founder for providing trading for securities such as BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, SAND, MANA, ALGO, AXS, and COTI. The U.S. summarizes the case as a blatant disregard of the federal securities law and the investor and market protections these laws provide. The SEC states that Binance has enriched itself by billions of U.S. dollars while placing investors’ assets at significant risk. The 13 charges come after the CFTC unveiled a similar complaint against Binance and Zhao earlier this year. CZ on twitter stated, “4. Our team is all standing by; ensuring systems are stable, including withdrawals, and deposits.   We will issue a response once we see the complaint. Haven't seen it yet. Media gets the info before we do.”  Charles Hoskinson of IOHK, who had tweeted, “With respect to Binance, I'm reading thro...

    Over the past years and despite the continuous banning of crypto in Qatar by the Qatar Central Bank, crypto trading and investing in Qatar is flourishing reflected in various ways.  The first reflection of the attractiveness of crypto trading in Qatar is the statement made by Qatar’s Ahli bank, at the end of May 2023. The bank warned customers against, trading, buying and selling virtual assets and currencies through accounts and banking services, citing the reasons as being associated with high risks. Secondly Triple A report in January 2023 put Qatar’s crypto ownership at 0.9 percent of the population, around 24,000 people. Since then it could be the numbers have increased. Just over a year ago CoinMENA had announced that it was serving clients in Qatar. Even Bahrain’s RAIN crypto broker supports Qatar, as does UAE based BitOasis. But the third and most significant reflection of the growth of crypto in Qatar is the recent MENA FATF report , where they ment...

  CoinMENA announced on LinkedIn that residents and citizens of Iraq can now use CoinMENA to trade crypto safely and easily. This will be the 8 th country in the region supported by CoinMENA. CoinMENA is a crypto broker licensed from Bahrain. As per Dina Sam'an, Founder and Managing Director of CoinMENA, “We are committed to being the simplest and safest way for investors in MENA to trade in digital assets. Adding Iraq to our list of supported countries brings us closer to our goal of providing premium financial services, built on crypto rails, to the entire MENA region. We are excited to welcome the people of Iraq to our community and look forward to providing them with the best crypto trading user experience in the region.” CoinMENA currently serves clients in Bahrain, UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Egypt and now Iraq. Prior to this CoinMENA launched the CoinMENA University, a free educational platform offering over 100 articles and numerous videos to educate those inter...

  In January 2023 Binance celebrated its official entrance into Bahrain. Bahrain’s crypto ecosystem has flourished with the entrance of Binance. Bahrain has witnessed a growth on all fronts, crypto exchange users, crypto payments, crypto jobs and competitive crypto offerings. Binance received its official license in October 2022.   Growth of crypto exchange users   The official license and launch of Binance in Bahrain has added to Binance’s crypto exchange users. Binance announced that it witnessed a 34% growth in institutional business clients in MENA in Q4 2022, the highest growth for a region where Binance operates, Nadeem Ladki, Executive Director Head of BD & Partnerships, Europe & MENA at Binance told LaraontheBlock, “While I cannot go into the specific growth in Bahrain, I can confirm that we have seen a growth in users since we officially launched in October 2022.”   Even Bahrain based CoinMENA; crypto broker also saw an increase in its...

  It all started with the FTX downfall and then Binance’s Co-Founder and CEO call for crypto exchanges to carry out proof of reserves. Since then crypto exchanges such as Binance and crypto.com have provided wallets addresses tied to company wallets while Nansen blockchain analytics firm is creating a display of crypto exchange proof of reserves dashboard that currently includes Binance, crypto.com, OkX, Kucoin, Deribit, Bitfinex, Github, and others. But what are locally homegrown crypto exchanges in MENA doing. Will they carry out proof of reserves, do they see it as the solution to bring trust back to crypto exchanges, and who has exposure to FTX?   MENA Crypto Exchanges and Proof of Reserves Bahrain based CoinMENA Talal Tabbaa and Dina Sama’an when asked by LaraontheBlock about if they will be doing proof of reserves stated, “This FTX news is a major setback for our industry and highlights the importance of regulation. This is why CoinMENA was established under the Ce...

  Bahrain regulated CoinMENA, a crypto asset service provider - category 3 license holder has partnered with Carlton Real Estate, a Bahrain-based real estate agency, that allows investors in the Kingdom to purchase real estate property using crypto assets. Under the partnership, the leading Bahrain-based real estate broker will accept stablecoins like USDT and USDC. CoinMENA is a leading crypto asset service provider - category 3 that is regulated and licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, serving the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The trading platform allows retail and institutional investors access to digital assets investments and directly connects their bank accounts with their CoinMENA wallets to facilitate quick and frictionless money transfers.  Carlton Real Estate, a Bahrain-based company established in 1996, is a certified broker with a RERA-Bahrain license and offers a wide range of real estate services to corporate and individual clients throughout ...

  This week Qatar made headlines in the Blockchain, crypto, NFT and metaverse scene on several fronts. While the CEO of Qatar   Sovereign Wealth Fund praised Blockchain but shunned crypto, Qatar’s Central Bank Governor stated that crypto assets are a technology innovation that will take us to a new era of fast accessible payments and financial services. Topping all this was Qatar Airways increased foray into the realm of the metaverse, and NFTs. It seems that while the government of Qatar has yet to make up its mind on whether it wants to enter the era of cryptocurrencies, or whether they agree that crypto will have to be dealt with at one point or another, they are taking steps towards integrating elements of blockchain and CBDC into their strategies. During the Qatar Economic Forum Qatar Central Bank Governor Bandar Bin Mohammed Bin Saoud Al Thani admitted that Qatar is in the foundation stage of investigating a central bank Digital Currency (CBDC). As he noted, “Many c...

  So while crypto exchanges flock and grow in the MENA region specifically in Bahrain and the UAE, RAIN crypto exchange has laid off more than 120 employees. Speculations loom as to the reasons, yet one thing is certain; the first regulated crypto exchange to launch in the MENA region is facing the heat and is shedding its employees like a snake sheds its skin.  So while Binance and CoinMENA, both competitors of RAIN crypto exchange in Bahrain, were receiving upgrades on their licenses to category 4 and category 3 respectively, and while Crypto.com one of the biggest crypto exchanges globally received provisional approval for its virtual assets license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), RAIN was making no such announcements. On the contrary the only announcement it was making was that of layoffs. On May 1 st 2022, CoinMENA announced it had received an upgrade to its license from a category 2 to a category 3. As the company on LinkedIn stated, “We ...

  Qatar will witness a blockchain revolution summit on the 26 th of May 2022 at St. Regis Doha Qatar, with the participation of Dr. Don Tapscott , Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, and well known as a leading Blockchain expert. The summit is being organized by the Blockchain Research Institute Middle East, the first regional branch of Blockchain Research Institute based out of Qatar. The event is set to discuss opportunities to create industry solution frameworks and guidelines leveraging blockchain technologies to secure data, reduce costs and improve timelines. The interesting highlights of this summit are the speakers and sponsors. Aside from Don Tapscott, speakers include Fadi Nasser, Chief Commercial Officer of Meeza Qatar. Meeza is also sponsoring the event. Nebil Ben Aissa, Chief Executive officer for Nexxo, a private equity investment network dedicated to FinTech is also participating. In addition Khalid Al Ansari a Doctor of Law (JD) and a P...

  CoinMENA Chief Operating Officer Dina Semaan announced today on twitter that CoinMENA crypto exchange is now serving clients in Qatar. This would be the first crypto exchange to officially announce that it is serving clients in Qatar. As per her tweet , “Starting from today, CoinMENA services are now being offered in Qatar, making us the first regulated crypto exchange to be offering services in Qatar.”   She adds with this expansion we now offer CoinMENA services in six Arab countries, and we continue to achieve our goals of offering the simplest and easiest method for trading crypto.” This comes after Qatar’s FIFA 2022 took on sponsors such as Crypto.com, one of the international crypto exchanges globally. It also comes after FIFA signed up AlGorand Blockchain as a sponsor and partner for their digitization plans in the sports and entertainment sector. CoinMENA was first regulated in Bahrain, and then sought regulation in UAE, and offers its services in KSA, Kuwait, Om...