Binance announced via its Dubai GM Alex Chehade that the UAE is central in its future operation plans, who added that many good reasons lie behind UAE’s potentially becoming the world’s next major crypto hub.
Binance was founded in Shanghai in 2017 and has dominated the crypto industry handling some $65bn in daily trades but has recently faced challenges from global regulators. The collapse of one of Binance’s biggest rivals, FTX, has negatively impacted the crypto sector.
The crypto exchange has been under scrutiny by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and recently abandoned operations in a number of countries.
In May 2023, Binance said it ceased operations in Canada while also exiting the Netherlands after failing to obtain a virtual asset service provider (VASP) from the local regulator. More recently, Belgium’s FSMA regulator ordered Binance to cease offering any virtual currency services in the country. The company is also seeking to delist itself from the register of authorized crypto asset service providers (CASPs) in Cyprus.
Read: Binance avoids US asset freeze, ceases operations in Canada, Netherlands
UAE: Prime destination for Binance, crypto firms
Last April, UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority announced accepting applications from cryptocurrency businesses for operating licenses in the region.
Chehade said the UAE is a prime destination for crypto businesses seeking a clear path forward and reminded about the country’s friendly stance toward digital assets.
“Binance identified that the senior leadership of the UAE wanted to establish the region as a focal point for Web3. They’re trying to diversify away from fossil fuels and they see [crypto] as a great driver for doing so,” Chehade said speaking to Cointelegraph.
“Binance is here [in the UAE] because we’ve been given the surety that we can set up operations and build for the future,” he explained, adding:
“You don’t want to set up where the goalposts move. For big businesses, you need predictability, you need to plan and you need to budget.”
Chehade pointed to the fact that UAE’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) became a key driving force behind the surge of crypto-related interest in the region.
“There’s a clear framework for people and businesses to engage with, whereas you’re just not seeing as much of that elsewhere,” he said.
“The two key drivers are that lots of expatriates are moving here from Europe and Asia, and the overall demographic is younger as well — and we know that younger people have a more favorable mindset when it comes to virtual assets. You don’t see that so much in other crypto hubs.”
On February 7, 2923, VARA, which gave Binance a preparatory minimal viable product license in September 2021, released its Full Market Product Regulations and activity-specific rulebooks that define rules for virtual asset service providers operating in Dubai.
According to the World of Statistics, in terms of crypto owners as a percentage of the population, the UAE led at 27.67 percent followed by Vietnam at 20.54 percent, then Singapore at 13.93 percent. The US was at 13.22 percent in fourth place.
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