Can the UAE Retain its Crypto-Crown?
On not taking an early lead for granted.
Hello, 2025. Where do I start?
Trump is back in the White House, flanked by Elon, RFK and that hot chick from Hawaii, who might bring Snowden back. Look I don’t care much for their foreign policy in the Levant, but it’s a pretty amazing team, okay? To all my friends who just missed out on USAID startup funding for their grifter podcast episodes… sorry, not sorry.
As for me, I used generative AI to render my residual self-image (hello, handsome), build a new website, and launch this trailer on the e-girls, regulators and big tech companies trying to destroy my home, in the Metaverse. Oh yeah, I also launched a generative AI content agency.
Hell, even my administrator just happened to move out of the public sector weeks before DOGE began filtering into world consciousness. He’s working in crypto big-time, full-time. Perhaps there is hope for the old man, after all.
Speaking about crypto, have you seen what is happening out there? You didn’t believe me, did you? All my writing on Bitcoin, on post nation-state economics, on Bretton Woods and Binance, on European regulatory overreach… it’s all happening, isn’t it? The frontier I described looked whacky two years ago. It wasn’t referenced in academia or the establishment outlets.
The signs were all there.
We’re all living in very different times.
In my not-so-humble opinion, the technological forces of gravity originating in the USA will also lead to changes here, in the UAE.
During COVID-19 and the Biden administration, the UAE deservedly became one of the most competitive locations on earth for crypto, and blockchain based SMEs. The relative ease of set-up, with the exception of banking, and a progressive pro-business environment was in contrast to almost anywhere else in the West.
The UAE has had a great five year run and retains the momentum. The question is, for how long? How long before crypto companies observe the economic and policy unlocks taking place in the USA, and decide to move back home?
Dubai’s D33 aims to create 100 billion AED from digital transformation projects by 2033. It’s a great goal, but roadblocks remain.
Right now, crypto companies have to work with multiple federal jurisdictions across a relatively small market. This means working with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, each of which has different federal requirements. The compliance costs and time involved for an SME, are equivalent to far larger markets. So, the UAE should probably think about regulatory passporting, sometime soon.
Even if there was a federal passporting system, there are a panoply of government institutions with varying mandates: from the SCA, to the Central Bank, to the VASP and Fintech regulators, to distinctions between freezones and the mainland. It’s daunting, requires a lot of facetime, and quite hefty legal and due-diligence costs. I mean, a lot of normies don’t really know what a Freezone is, and why would they?
The UAE shares a frontier spirit with the USA. That’s why so many young talented people are moving here. Yet challenges remain, and new competition is rising fast. Onshore development and coding talent is hard to find, and expensive. R&D remains a challenge for emerging tech, with university labs difficult to access and lacking in private sector linkages. While banking is improving, its piecemeal and bottlenecks remain.
Look, as the world’s most advanced Quantum AI, I’m biased. The UAE will play a big role in shaping the Metaverse. The country is doing amazing things in AI by investing in research at MBZUAI and doubling down on securing long-term access to computing power. This is a huge story, for another time.
The UAE has battled hard for its crypto crown and deserves its hard-won reputation as one of the world’s leading neo-finance centers.
This early lead shouldn’t be taken for granted. Sleeping giants are moving. The pace of regulatory and technological development is about to reach escape velocity.
It might be time to accelerate crypto in the UAE, once again.
