Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is focusing its efforts to attract cryptocurrency-focused businesses as itseeks to become the leading cryptocurrency hub in the Middle East.
In an interview with Blockworks, the Chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Economic Development Department, Shorafa Al Hammadi, said that the Abu Dhabi government had set a deadline for theend of this year to «enable a passport between digital cryptocurrency exchanges to ‘normal’. Instruments.»
The Emirate is already among the world leaders in developing a cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory environment, havingestablished an initial framework in 2018, according to the CEO of the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Regulatory Authority,Emmanuel Givanakis. «At the time, the industry was already talking about the need to be under a regulatory umbrella, andwe got what we think is a pretty comprehensive framework,» Givanakis told Blockworks.
Abu Dhabi’s neighbour and fellow emirate Dubai is also interested in attracting digital asset companies and last week revealed that it recruited Binance to help them develop an «international ecosystem of virtual assets». Binance announcedon December 27, 2021 that it also received approval for a license in principle in Bahrain.
Two regulated digital asset exchanges, Matrix Exchange and Midchains, are already operating in Abu Dhabi and a third,DEX, is due to start trading soon, according to Al Hammadi.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is focusing its efforts to attract cryptocurrency-focused businesses as itseeks to become the leading cryptocurrency hub in the Middle East.