In KPMG and Agreus’s   2023 Global Fmaily Office Compensation Benchmark Report which found that financial wealth, generated by ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices is forecasted to increase to 46% by 2026 and that Crypto, a growing area of interest in the UAE, could play a small role in global family office portfolios as CEOs and MDs explore it and fall into the category of fun. As per KPMG Agreus report, “ Diversifying does not always mean investing heavily in the likes of cryptocurrency but rather, decentralizing risk by spreading investments across multiple areas with precedents of high return. Crypto like many ‘new’ asset classes may well continue to play a very small role in Family Office portfolios but it is envisioned this shall fall into the category of fun, a small percentage for Principals to play with either for passion or simple curiosity.” KPMG report believes that while the coming years could see the introduction of yet another new and excit...

  In Ripple’s latest report entitled “ 2023 New Value report, Crypto Trends in Business and Beyond” which covered topics such as cryptocurrencies, tokenization, DeFi, and crypto custody, financial decision makers from MENA ( Middle East and North Africa) are more bullish than their counterparts in other regions when it comes to cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and Blockchain. As per the report findings, 72% of finance leaders surveyed expressed increased confidence in the crypto industry over the last 6 months, the number is even higher for those in the MENA region, reaching 87%. 90% of global finance leaders anticipate big impacts on business from blockchain and digital assets in the next three years. In terms of tokenization,they see the most massive impact in public stock trading and private share trading. This was especially expressed by finance decision makers with cryptocurrency experience in MENA. In addition, global finance decision makers predict CBDCs and stableco...

  A new report entitled, “Disrupt and Innovate: Harness the power of blockchain” published by Singapore Agile Dynamics, a research based consultancy services, blockchain technology will boost global gross domestic product (GDP) by US$2.1 trillion of the projected global GDP in 2030. Approximately half (49%) of the US$2.1 trillion will come from growth markets. This is especially important finding given the growth of blockchain implementation in the GCC and MENA region. Countries such as Qatar, KSA , UAE , and even Oman are building their capacities and use cases utilizing emergent technologies such as blockchain, AI, IoT and others, and their GDPs will be positively affected. As per the report as well, customized layer 1 blockchain protocol offers potential benefits such as increased financial inclusion, reduced transaction costs, and improved transparency - all of which align with the concept of technology sovereignty. It empowers entities to have ownership and control of th...

  World Economic Forum report entitled “   Pathways to the Regulation of Crypto-Assets”   says UAE crypto asset regulatory framework is an agile one,   defining it as flexible, iterative and proactive which is beneficial because it is flexible, appreciate market maturity and ecosystem development. According to the WEF report, regulators that fall under this model include the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. FINMA’s token classification prescribes three simple categories: payment tokens, utility tokens and asset tokens. The framework acknowledges hybrid tokens and that a token’s classification may change over time. Following the first classification, FINMA later also published further guidance in Also included as per the report are the regulatory sandboxes in the EU and India in addition to the UAE.  Instead of prescribing and enforcing rules, agile regulation adopts a responsive, iterative approach, acknowledging that policy and regulatory de...

  Crypto Oasis launched its crypto Oasis report for Q2 of 2023 announcing the Green Block initiative as part of its commitment to the UAE’s Environmentally Sustainable goals. This comes as the UAE hosts the COP28 in December 2023. Crypto Oasis, a blockchain ecosystem fostering innovation in the UAE, has witnessed a significant growth in the blockchain crypto ecosystem in the UAE. In its second edition of the Crypto Oasis Ecosystem report for Q2 2023, it noted that there were now over 1,800 organizations in the blockchain and crypto industry within the country with over 8,650 employees working in crypto blockchain, metaverse, and Web3 ecosystem. The numbers are up from the ones shared in Crypto Oasis’s annual report of 2022 published in October. At that time there were 1,400 blockchain and crypto entities in the country employing 7000 people. This shows that 400 new entities registered their companies in the UAE over the past 8 months employing an extra 1,650 people in the ...

  The TRIPLE A January 2023 crypto ownership country report  noted that the number of cryptocurrency users has increased since January 2022. In January 2023 there were 420 million crypto owners globally; this is up from their previous report in January 2022 where they had stated there were 300 million crypto owners globally. In the Arab world biggest growth was seen in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, and even Iraq.  More interesting is that if we compare the percentage of crypto owners in the Arab world between January 2022 and January 2023 in some countries the increase is exponential. For example in Jan 2022 2.38% of Moroccan population owned crypto, by January 2023 this number had increased to 4.9% an increase of more than 2% in one year. The same goes for Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon were the increase was also significant. Country Jan 2022 Crypto Ownership % Jan 2023 crypto ownership % Crypto Ownership Population 2023 ...

  Recently Recap, a crypto tracking and capital gains solution provider, published its report under the title ‘Which Cities are leading the way in cryptocurrency’.   50 cities were put in the report. As per the report Recap scored these cities based on the following criteria. The first was quality of life score; personally I don’t see how crypto is related to quality of life. For me the most popular crypto enthusiasts and users are usually from cities and countries which have the most unbanked population or live in countries where the financial and economic situation is not that impressive. Examples include Morocco, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt and others, all by the way not even mentioned in the report. Their second criterion was crypto specific events! Wow this was a first for me, so if a city carries out a lot of crypto events then automatically it becomes a city leading the way in cryptocurrency. This was actually one of the biggest reasons Kuwait was put on the list, comin...

  According to a report by ResearchAndMarkets, the NFT industry in the UAE is   expected to grow steadily, recording a CAGR of 32.1% during 2022-2028. The NFT Spend Value in the country will increase from US$982.1 million in 2022 to reach US$ 4.746.3 million by 2028. As per the report the non-fungible token (NFT) scene is growing as more and more entrepreneurs, businesses, and celebrities enter the fast-growing industry. Like the rest of the world, the UAE market is also rapidly adopting NFTs. The report notes that over the last 12 months, several innovative NFT marketplaces have also emerged in the country, which has made it relatively simpler for the general public to buy, sell, and trade in NFTs. From NFT-based startups to cryptocurrency exchanges, several players are entering the UAE NFT market; the presence of several NFT marketplaces has also supported the rise in NFT trading transaction value and volume, the trend expected to gain further momentum over the next thr...

  In Checkout.com’s third annual report on digital transformation in MENA for 2022, it found that e-commerce in the UAE had settled into a stable high growth era. The report states that consumers in the UAE are turning to their digital devices and spending more time and money online. Even payment methods are evolving in the UAE with more turning to crypto and digital wallets. The report confirms that 42 percent of 18-40 year olds in the UAE have held digital assets such as crypto, stablecoins and NFTs, and 59 percent of 18-40 year olds would like to be able to pay for goods and services in crypto or stablecoins in the next 12 months.  The digital transformation in MENA 2022 report draws insights from a regional survey which polled more than 15,500 consumers in August 2022 in the UAE, KSA, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Pakistan. 96 percent of UAE consumers now shop ecommerce, an increase from 89% from last year. This comes as a testament to the continued consumer demand o...

  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...

  According to Saxo Bank press release utilizing data driven from its crypto FX platform, 400 million USD of crypto FX trading was recorded in the MENA region compared to global trading volumes surpassing 3.40 billion USD. These findings were recorded since the initiation of Crypto FX in May 2022. Saxo Bank noted that Bitcoin and Ethereum were the most popular currencies being traded in the MENA region with 57 percent for Bitcoin and 40 percent for Ethereum. This is in line with global trading which puts Bitcoin-USD at 45 percent of crypto forex trading volumes and  Ethereum-USD at 44 percent volumes.  Stanislav Kostyukhin, Commercial Owner, Trader, Saxo Bank, said: “These figures show the high interest in this nascent asset class within the region while also highlighting the confidence that investors have in our framework as the market continues to evolve.   Our crypto offering ensures clients have a fully compliant product, with best execution and best practice...