Dubai is betting on crypto to become a global tech hub

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Dubai was one of the first cities to emerge from the pan­dem­ic, reopen­ing to tourism by the mid­dle of 2021. The emi­rate now has set its sights on becom­ing a glob­al tech hub by attract­ing entre­pre­neurs, investors and even cryp­to influ­encers to the city. But will its bet on cryp­tocur­ren­cy cat­a­pult it to suc­cess or leave it in the dust?

Dubai’s han­dling of the pan­dem­ic, low tax­es and ease of doing busi­ness laid the ground­work for a post-pan­dem­ic boom. And they’re pay­ing off in the form of new tech investment.

“Dubai, and the UAE over­all, is a world class exam­ple of deal­ing with a pan­dem­ic. Now you see tal­ent inter­na­tion­al­ly, from all parts of the world, want­i­ng to move to Dubai,” said Ola Doudin, co-founder of BitOa­sis, a cryp­tocur­ren­cy platform.

In 2020, $654 mil­lion of invest­ment poured into start-ups in the Mid­dle East and North Africa, accord­ing to research from Wam­da, an invest­ment and ven­ture cap­i­tal firm that oper­ates in the region. That amount quadru­pled to near­ly $2.9 bil­lion the fol­low­ing year, with rough­ly half that flow­ing into the UAE.

“We’re def­i­nite­ly see­ing Dubai lead­ing that race, com­pet­ing with oth­er finan­cial hubs and real­ly posi­tion­ing itself as a glob­al cryp­to hub,” Doudin said.

But that bet on cryp­to comes at a time when there’s ris­ing investor appre­hen­sion toward the dig­i­tal cur­ren­cy mar­ket, amid high-pro­file hacks, col­lapsed “sta­ble­coins,” and steep drops in cryp­to prices.

So will the emi­rate’s bet the volatile cryp­to indus­try cat­a­pult it to suc­cess or leave it in the dust? Watch our video above to learn more.

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