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Saudi Aramco partners with Blockchain entity Data Gumbo for blockchain innovation in oil and gas sector

Saudi Aramco partners with Blockchain entity Data Gumbo for blockchain innovation in oil and gas sector

Saudi Aramco has signed a memorandum of agreement with Data Gumbo, a US based Blockchain technology company which developed a blockchain as a service platform to streamline smart contracts management for industrial customers. The agreement between Saudi Aramco and Data Gumbo is for Blockchain collaboration over a three year term.

This is not the first time Saudi Aramco has dealt with Data Gumbo. In August 2022, Saudi Aramco’s investment arm Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures made its fourth investment in Data Gumbo series C round where Data Gumbo raised $4million. The round was led by Saudi Aramco Ventures and Equinor, Norway’s energy operator.

As per the Data Gumbo blog post, “ Data Gumbo is proud to announce that on 8 February, 2023 we entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Aramco for Blockchain Collaboration.  The agreement has a 3 year term. We are honored by the opportunity to deepen our collaboration and look forward to several transformational projects in the coming years.”

The MOU was signed by Mohamed Marzouk, Saudi Arabia Country Manager and Saudi Aramco’s Senior Vice President, Digital and Information Technology Mr. Nabil Al-Nuaim in Riyadh.

As per the agreement the Areas of collaboration will include, accelerating digital transformation within the Oil & Gas Industry, exploring,  identifying and co-innovating blockchain use, improving operational efficiency and driving ROIU with Aramco, its customers and suppliers, providing blockchain training and finally identifying potential applications for managed blockchain services

Number one ranking University in Dubai UAE is accepting crypto payments with Binance Pay

Number one ranking University in Dubai UAE is accepting crypto payments with Binance Pay

UAE’s Canadian University in Dubai is accepting crypto payments through Binance. In a twitter post the Canadian University Dubai announced that it had collaborated with Binance Pay to offer crypto as a payment method.

According to the post Binance Pay is a contactless secure crypto payment technology.

Students of Canadian University Dubai can use Binance Pay to pay their fees. 

According to the QS World University Rankings 2022, Canadian University Dubai is ranked first in Dubai. There are more than 70 supported cryptocurrencies on Binance Pay, including Cardano (ADA), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and others.

In February 2023 as well, Bahrain real estate developer Bin Faqeeh Real estate Investment Company announced that clients can buy apartments or houses using cryptocurrencies. Bin Faqeeh will be offering crypto payment services with Bahrain financial service provider EazyPay POS terminals, which is utilizing Binance Pay.

In late January 2023, UAE Emirates Zone Investment Services partnered with Binance Pay, to accept crypto payments from the UAE startup community, small and medium businesses (SMBs), Investors and Entrepreneurs who are planning to set up companies in the region.

In October 2022 in Chainalysis’s blog report, MENA based crypto users received $566 billion worth of cryptocurrency in one year from July 2021 to June 2022. As per the news, this is a 48 percent increase from 2020-2021.

Blockchain UAE Trade Finance platform adds United Arab Bank as 11th bank on its platform

Blockchain UAE Trade Finance platform adds United Arab Bank as 11th bank on its platform

Blockchain UAE Trade Connect platform, the UAE’s first trade finance platform to combat fraud has added United Arab Bank (UAB) as its 11th bank on its platform.

UTC, the fintech blockchain platform of e& enterprise, is the UAE’s first commercialized solution to combat fraud in the trade finance space built on advanced technologies, namely blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI). UTC is a collaborative project of the banking industry and co-created with e& enterprise.

UAE Trade Connect is a cloud-native solution that detects suspicious transactions, prevents fraud and duplication, and supports a wide range of trade-related documents that is validated and inspected in real time.

Shirish Bhide, Chief Executive Officer at United Arab Bank, stated, “We wholeheartedly support UTC’s mission of driving digital transformation and reducing fraud risks. This strategic partnership aligns with UAB’s mission to accelerate growth through digitization and to build a secure and transparent trade finance ecosystem. UTC’s benefits will not only protect UAB’s customers and the wider banking system but will also boost global trade. It is a pivotal event in the digitization space, with the potential to make trade financing more accessible, affordable, and equitable.”

 Zulqarnain Javaid, Chief Executive Officer of UTC, added, “We are excited to welcome United Arab Bank to our banking consortium – UAB joins us as a full member along with 10 other UAE banks. All consortium members play an equal and active role in the steering and governance of the UTC platform. Since our launch in April 2021, UTC has inspected transactions worth close to AED 100 billion in real time. This achievement is aligned with the UAE government’s vision to bring the best in technology building a competitive economy and stepping up the digital transformation process to enter into the new digital banking era.”

With the advent of the Invoice Factoring law recently published by the Federal Government of the UAE, the UTC blockchain platform will be a key enabler for banks to increase lending to SMEs and allow corporates to borrow against their trade receivables.

In December 2021, the UAE Blockchain AI enabled UAE Trade Connect trade finance platform which was built by Etisalat and Blockchain solution provider Avanza Innovations, had processed 10 Billion AED (2.7 billion USD) worth of invoices during the first eight months of its operation. Etisalat Digital launched UTC trade Finance platform in April of 2021 alongside seven banks within the UAE.

In early 2022, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank joined UTC platform as did Dubai Islamic Bank. At that time UTC had in total nine banks on its roster. The founding banks included First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), RAKBANK, Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, National Bank of Fujairah, Mashreq Bank, ADIB – Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and Commercial Bank International.

Why the Recap report that puts Dubai UAE as the second top leading crypto city is nonsense

Why the Recap report that puts Dubai UAE as the second top leading crypto city is nonsense

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, coming in at 16th place, because it had 64 crypto related events!! The funniest thing is that UAE was mentioned as only having 20 crypto events! I mean who are we kidding, even CZ from Binance tweeted the other day that UAE has a crypto event every day! This means that there are 365 crypto events in UAE not 20. Both stretch the truth a bit, but all can agree that the number of blockchain and crypto events in UAE definitely surpass that of Kuwait.

But please let’s not stop there, the third criteria was people working in crypto related jobs! I really don’t know how they even reached that number, but let’s dig into their numbers, so first they mention that London in the UK has the most crypto related job over 2000, while Dubai in UAE has 869 to be exact! But Japan top three crypto cities only have a total of 14 people working in crypto jobs! I mean seriously! While Jeddah in Saudi Arabia has 24 people working in crypto related jobs and believe it or not Kuwait city has 7!

Can someone tell me where is Bahrain in all of this? Bahrain which has Binance, CoinMENA, Rain, crypto payments and an ATM or two? Bahrain were crypto growth has skyrocketed.

Even If were naïve enough to believe this, given that both Kuwait and KSA have not even started to regulate crypto how is that possible, and how can Japan which was considered one of the most advanced countries in crypto and blockchain only 14 people working in crypto in its top three cities?!

But Alas comes the number of crypto companies. So please bear with me. In Dubai UAE, there are 867 people working in crypto related jobs and there are 772 crypto companies in Dubai UAE. Amazingly that would mean that there is almost 1.2 employees working across these 772 crypto companies. Even UAE Based crypto Oasis has calculated that there are 1,600 blockchain and crypto related entities in the UAE.

Skipping down to the most interesting part, the ownership of crypto in each country,. According to Recap 34 percent of the population living in UAE own crypto, how is that possible when UAE was the number third country in MENA in terms of crypto movement into the country as per Chainalysis. What’s even funnier is Kuwait which took 16th position beating KSA, Recap has 0 percent of people owning crypto in Kuwait! You read it right zero percent of people in Kuwait own crypto but they all go to the 65 crypto events happening in the Kuwait city! Surprisingly Saudi Arabia has 20 percent ownership of crypto among its population but comes in at number 22!

Anyhow I will stop here. To go any further with analyzing their data would be a waste of time! I am not contending that Dubai is not the number two city in the world leading crypto, but I would not use Recap report to make that point! The whole report is nonsensical. 

But what really bothers me, is that a lot of media actually published and picked up this report and used their data. Where is the world coming to?!

UAE Music Festival to incorporate NFT tickets by BNB Chain and Fellaz

UAE Music Festival to incorporate NFT tickets by BNB Chain and Fellaz

The Ultra-Abu Dhabi, the premier EDM music festival taking place on March 4th and 5th 2023 will be powered by NFT (Non fungible token) tickets developed by BNB Chain, smart contract blockchain and  Fellaz, a Web3 entertainment ecosystem.

The cutting edge ticketing solution powered by BNB Chain will verify the authenticity of tickets, ensuring legitimacy. The collaboration will allow for a more seamless and secure ticketing experience for Ultra Abu Dhabi fans using NFT ticketing while providing a new blueprint for Web3 fan engagement specializing in the music industry.

BNB Chain was originally initiated by Binance but has since grown to become a community-driven, permissionless, and decentralized blockchain ecosystem. Binance is now  one of the many contributors operating within the BNB Chain ecosystem rather than some kind of dominant force wielding unilateral power over it. 

Alvin Kan, Director of Growth and Ops at BNB Chain said, “The new NFT ticketing solution will allow the use of NFTs to provide a secure and tamper-proof way to verify the authenticity of tickets and offer a convenient and seamless experience for the fans. We believe that this collaboration represents a major step forward in the use of mainstream blockchain technology in the entertainment industry, and we are confident that it will set a new standard for Web3 fan engagement and entertainment applications in both IRL and Metaverse environments.”

Bobby Bhatia, CEO of Fellaz, said, “We are excited to partner with BNB Chain to bring our NFT ticketing to this global EDM music festival. Fellaz NFT Tickets powered by BNB Chain will provide a more secure and engaging ticketing experience for fans. We are thrilled to be at the forefront of this technology in the entertainment industry with global brands like Ultra.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Fellaz on this groundbreaking initiative,” said Dudley Chou, Managing Partner of UC Global, the organizer behind many Ultra events in Asia, including Ultra Abu Dhabi. “The use of NFTs for event ticketing is a growing trend in the entertainment industry, and our partnership with Fellaz and BNB Chain is a major step forward in bringing this technology to the mainstream. With its seamless integration and unmatched security, Fellaz’s NFT ticketing solution will provide a new level of convenience and engagement for fans and event organizers alike.”

Integrating NFTs into the ticketing process offers several advantages over traditional ticketing systems. NFTs offer a reliable and secure means of verifying ticket authenticity, guaranteeing entry access exclusively to those with legitimate tickets. This helps to combat the issue of ticket fraud, which has long been a problem in the music industry.

Also, it allows for greater flexibility and convenience in the ticket-purchasing process. Ticket holders can easily transfer their tickets to friends or resell them on the secondary market without paying a fee to a reseller. This allows for a more seamless and hassle-free experience for music fans. Furthermore, the use of NFTs in the ticketing process enables the implementation of innovative features such as personalized and interactive festival experiences.

Kraken closes its UAE office, Chainalysis hires for MENA

Kraken closes its UAE office, Chainalysis hires for MENA

As per Bloomberg Kraken, crypto exchange based out of Abu Dhabi UAE has closed its office  while Chainalysis lays off 4.8 percent of its global workforce, but continues to hire in the MENA region.

Kraken has closed its  third office in less than a year. The first one was its headquarters in San Francisco, then Japan and now UAE.

Kraken had received a full license to operate in the UAE in April 2022.  With these closures have come layoffs. Kraken announced back in November 2022 that it would be laying off 30 percent of its workforce, equivalent to 1,100 employees.

As per Bloomberg, Kraken laid off the majority of its team in the MENA region, a total of 8 people. Benjamin Ampen, managing director for the region, will stay with the firm. On the Abu Dhabi market registry, Kraken is no longer listed as an active exchange.

In addition the exchange has suspended support for transactions in the AED, but clients in the region will still be able to use other products and services. That doesn’t require a local license, the spokesperson said.

In parallel, Chainalysis which last year had hinted to opening an office in the UAE hiring many employees as a prelude, also lays off part of its workforce globally but not in the UAE nor in the MENA region.  Actually while Chainalysis is laying off about 44 of its 900 employees, 4.8% of its workforce, it is continuing to hire for its operational expansion in the MENA region.

Sources close to Chainalysis within the UAE told LaraontheBlock that Chainalysis are actually hiring in the MENA region given the growth of crypto in countries such as Morocco with the potential to see KSA and Qatar on boarded into the crypto ecosystem in the future.

In an official statement, Chainalysis confirmed that it did not open its office in the UAE yet. It also stated with regards to the layoffs, “Chainalysis announced reorganization primarily impacting our go-to-market team – in order to meet new challenges and opportunities in the market. As a part of this reorg, some folks will have new roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines. Unfortunately we will also part ways with some incredibly talented people within our team. Chainalysis is well capitalized and will continue to hire and build out teams aligned with our refocused strategy in 2023.”

In July 2022, The UAE’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications signed a preliminary agreement with blockchain data platform Chainalysis to provide virtual training programs for the country’s government entities.

So while some crypto entities close their offices and lay off employees in the MENA region, others continue to hire because the MENA region is a crypto growth market! So is it really the fault of the crypto winter or is it the fault of internal organizational issues and maybe even slow crypto regulation? 

Whatever the case while we say goodbye to Kraken, we welcome Chainalysis and many others to come!

UAE Abu Dhabi University introduces Blockchain courses with 5ire blockchain

UAE Abu Dhabi University introduces Blockchain courses with 5ire blockchain

UAE Abu Dhabi University (ADU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 5ire, a fifth generation blockchain ecosystem, to strengthen blockchain education, research and entrepreneurship. both parties will identify and support compelling projects on blockchain technology, with a specific focus on sustainability and accessibility.

As part of its commitment to expand the course offerings, ADU will work closely with 5ire to build a comprehensive framework that will provide educational opportunities for students, including courses and workshops focused on blockchain technology and its applications. In addition, 5ire will provide financial sponsorship for ADU’s UAE national students, who have met the criteria and are interested in obtaining professional certifications or pursuing degrees focused on blockchain courses. The criteria include but are not limited to academic performance, financial need and demonstrated interest in blockchain technology.

 

Furthermore, the partnership will focus on providing resources to support students and researchers that are interested in developing and commercializing projects based on blockchain technology. ADU and 5ire will work on a business plan to launch a blockchain academy with a profit-sharing model to offer professional certifications accepted within the UAE and throughout the region.

The parties will organize a hackathon hosted at ADU for both school and university students, as well as offering hands-on training and mentorship to the hackathon participants. A training program will also be arranged to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to advance and commercialize projects focused on 5ire’s blockchain technology.

 

5ire will offer ADU faculty and staff members comprehensive training and a “train-the-trainer” certificate program, to enable them to effectively support future training efforts and integrate 5ire technology into the curriculum for undergraduate and post-graduate programs. The University students and faculty will also be provided with access to both 5ire’s software and hardware technology and curriculum for teaching and research purposes.

 

Prof. Ghassan Aouad, Chancellor of Abu Dhabi University (ADU), said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with 5ire to further advance our programs and offer our students a well-rounded technological experience that builds on their skillset required for the career market. This collaboration aligns with our mission to continuously develop our programs and offerings to empower our students to grow, succeed and prepare them for their future careers and leadership roles in their respective fields. At ADU, we strive to be up to date with the latest advancements across all sectors, we believe that blockchain technology has the potential to transform a wide range of industries and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this transformation.”

 

Pratik Gauri, Co-Founder and CEO of 5ire, said: “We are delighted to be working with Abu Dhabi University (ADU) to advance blockchain education, research and entrepreneurship in the UAE. Our technology is designed to address the problem of low blockchain adoption due to sustainability and accessibility challenges. By partnering with ADU, we will be able to provide students and researchers with the necessary skills and knowledge to develop and commercialize projects that can have a positive impact on society and the environment.”

 

ADU and 5ire will work-hand-in-hand to explore the potential uses and benefits of 5ire’s blockchain technology. In addition to establishing collaborations with companies and organizations in the region that are working on related projects and could benefit from 5ire’s technology. The collaboration will also yield the development of case studies presenting the application of 5ire technology in areas such as sustainability, supply chain and logistics.

Alea Global Investment Group to have a session on Blockchain in trade Finance at KSA event

Alea Global Investment Group to have a session on Blockchain in trade Finance at KSA event

Alea Global Group will be holding their edition of Alea Sessions in Riyadh KSA. The one day gathering under the theme ‘The New Opportunities in Investment in the New Saudi Arabia’ will gather 100 of the GCC and MENA region’s top family offices. The event will include a session on Blockchain in Trade Finance.

Alea Global Group is a conglomerate single family business formed in 1998 in the State of Kuwait owned by a member of Al Duaij family. The one day event will discuss private debts and CLOs, trade finance, mezzanine debt, open banking, micro and macro banking environments, and Saudi Arabia’s unicorns.

The Alea Sessions is a series of irregular but responsive events held by Alea Group Group which are held when there is a need to address important topics that need to be addressed and which our followers would like to talk about. These events are usually shorter than their Family Office Summits, with a more focused programme. They may occur anywhere in the world, and also online.

Some of the highlighted speakers will include Essam Albakr Founder & CEO, Ejada Capital, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mark Mobius, Founding Partner, Mobius Capital Partners, Mirna Sleiman Founder & CEO, Fintech Galaxy, UAE, Omar AlShabaan Co-Founder & CEO, The Space, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Talal AlBakr Entrepreneur, CEO of SCCC, co-founded Embark Ventures, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz M. Alfakhri Board Director, CFO, CIO, Investments & Finance Executive, Angel Investor, Advisor, Mentor & Public Speaker, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ajay Sunkara President & Co-Founder, Nala Robotics, USA , Ashar Nazim CEO, Aion Digital, Kingdom of Bahrain as well as Rabih I. Khoury Managing Partner & Chief Exit Officer Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many others.

One of the sessions at the event will discuss the topic of how blockchain will shape trade finance. It will discuss how to overcome obstacles and find a competitive advantage in trade finance. Panelists will include Zineb Tamtaoui, Senior Executive Officer, Head Of Middle East Region, Chez BMCE BANK International Plc, and UAE Kevin Ramsamy, CFO, Barak Fund Management, Mauritius.

This is an interesting topic to be discussed at a family office event but not surprising given the latest stance taken by Saudi Arabian Finance Minister, Mohamed Al Jadaan in a TV interview with Bloomberg during the WEF 2023.

As per the interview Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar. He states, “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal.”

“I don’t think we are waving away or ruling out any discussion that will help improve the trade around the world,” Al-Jadaan said.

Blockchain could just be one of the ways KSA is looking to improve trade around the world.

In November 2022, Saudi Arabian, Saudi British Bank (SABB) utilized the Contour Blockchain platform to enhance trade finance by improving letter of credit and guarantee procedures for enterprises and international businesses. SABB worked with local fintech entity Bwatech.

In addition Saudi Arabian Taajeer Group, the exclusive agent for MG cars in the KSA utilized the Blockchain enabled Contour platform in its importing of cars from China. HSBC, Chinese SAIC Motor, and KSA Taajeer group executed a successful blockchain enabled trade finance transaction on the Contour platform.

Could this be the culmination of Saudi government strategy, and some blockchain success stories. Jut follow the money and all will be revealed.

The Crypto ecosystem grows in Bahrain after entrance of Binance

The Crypto ecosystem grows in Bahrain after entrance of Binance

In January 2023 Binance celebrated its official entrance into Bahrain. Bahrain’s crypto ecosystem has flourished with the entrance of Binance. Bahrain has witnessed a growth on all fronts, crypto exchange users, crypto payments, crypto jobs and competitive crypto offerings. Binance received its official license in October 2022.

Growth of crypto exchange users

The official license and launch of Binance in Bahrain has added to Binance’s crypto exchange users.

Binance announced that it witnessed a 34% growth in institutional business clients in MENA in Q4 2022, the highest growth for a region where Binance operates, Nadeem Ladki, Executive Director Head of BD & Partnerships, Europe & MENA at Binance told LaraontheBlock, “While I cannot go into the specific growth in Bahrain, I can confirm that we have seen a growth in users since we officially launched in October 2022.”

Even Bahrain based CoinMENA; crypto broker also saw an increase in its user base in 2022 including the period since Binance made its foray into the country. Talal Tabaa CEO and Founder of CoinMENA explained to LaraontheBlock, “Year on Year from December 2021 until December 2022, the verified users of CoinMENA from Bahrain grew by 143 percent. In specific since the entrance of Binance in October 2022, CoinMENA witnessed 5.6 percent growth up until January 2023.”

Growth Crypto vis vie Banking services

In addition to the increase in the number of newly on boarded crypto exchange clients, the country has seen more robust competitive marketing campaigns, with lower fees aimed at attracting a bigger user base as well as enhanced banking crypto relationships.

Binance holds a Category 4 license as a crypto asset service provider (CASP) and was the first exchange in the country to be granted a category four license.  This meant that users could access Binance’s full range of crypto asset exchange services, including direct deposits and withdrawals in local currencies.

Yet this did not faze CoinMENA which despite being a crypto broker still espouses good relationships with liquidity partners and banks. Talal Tabbaa, CEO of CoinMENA told LaraontheBlock, “Compared to other regions, the MENA market is one of the smallest. CoinMENA, Rain & BitOasis are technically all brokerage firms. We all have to work with global liquidity partners to place trades on behalf of our users. CoinMENA can list tokens at its own discretion following the Board of Directors’ approval, but they must comply with CBB guidelines.”

After Binance entered Bahrain and in early 2023, CoinMENA announced that users could now easily deposit and withdraw crypto through bank transfers or cards in just 24 hours. CoinMENA CEO explains, “We maintain good banking relationships which is crucial to ensure the on-ramp and off-ramp services are as frictionless as possible for our users.”

RAIN crypto broker which similar to CoinMENA has a category three license in Bahrain has on some occasions compared its offering with Binance. In a tweet by one of its founders AJ Nelson in late October in reply to a comment from a client stated, “Yes we are well aware of the problems with bank transfers. We are working directly with regulators to solve. In good time we will have a solution regarding fees, have you used Rain Pro? It has 0 maker fees and tight spreads. Lower fees and pricing than Binance.”

More Competitive Marketing Campaigns lower fees

In terms of marketing campaigns to introduce better services at lower cost, Binance for its launch campaign offered 25% discount on all trading fees for Bahrain users through a link ‘ BHLive’. 

In addition Binance offered the Binance Bahrain Card allowing Bahrain clients to spend cryptocurrencies in over 60 million online and physical stores. 

Furthermore in December as part of its Christmas offering, Binance offered its Arabic speaking clients’ rewards reaching $1.5 million in addition to promotions. As it noted on its twitter page Binance offers 350+ crypto assets with fees of less than 0.10 percent per transaction. 

CoinMENA quickly countered these marketing campaigns with those of its own. For example in January 2023, CoinMENA offered discounted card deposit fees for 48 hours again after doing so in late 2022.

 As per the advert, users would pay only 2% fee on card deposits instead of 3.5%. For Bahrain’s National Day celebrations, CoinMENA offered zero trading fees for a limited time of 48 hours. The crypto exchange had also promoted prior to that a 23% off on trading fees for a specified time period.

 CoinMENA offers around 30 crypto assets for trading with fees of 0.75%.

 Tabaa confirms that the entrance of Binance helped to grow the crypto ecosystem in Bahrain. He stated, “Binance spends a lot on crypto marketing and this actually benefits the entire ecosystem of players.”

 Growth of Crypto Payments

Crypto as a method of payment has also seen significant growth since the entrance of Binance in Bahrain. Binance partnered with EazyPay, a financial payment service provider which has a network of thousands of merchants and over 6000 terminals, to offer crypto as a method of payment while settling transactions with merchants in fiat currency.

According to Nayef Tawfiq Al Alawi, Managing Director and CEO of EazyPay, “As a regulated entity we can only work with regulated entities such as Binance. Since our partnership merchants have been more confident to get into the crypto payment scene and in terms of transactions, while people are still testing the service on average we transact $5000 worth of crypto transaction per day over 6000 terminals in Bahrain. This is really good.”

It hasn’t stopped there, In November 2022 just after Binance entered Bahrain, CoinMENA partnered with Carlton Real Estate, a Bahrain-based real estate agency that allows investors in the Kingdom to purchase real estate property using crypto assets. Under the partnership, the real estate broker would accept stablecoins like USDT and USDC.

 This only exemplifies the increase in crypto as a method of payment in the country.

Growth in crypto Job market

Binance has viewed Bahrain as a key business hub which will provide areas for growth and employment within the wider industry. Currently Binance has employed 200 people in Bahrain and is continuing to hire. It has job posts for Customer Support Specialist, Senior Treasury Manager and others in Bahrain.

Even RAIN which decreased its employee base by 50% still has around 200 employees while CoinMENA has around16 employees and is also currently hiring with job openings for software engineer in January 2023 as well others.

Conclusion

Changpeng Zhao CZ in a recent tweet  stated, “Bahrain is a hidden gem, super safe, very clean, well developed, good food, superb service, nice people and crypto friendly!”

While CoinMENA affirms that it has known that international players would be entering the region given the poor financial services, high fees and large unbanked population coupled with young demographic population and high smartphone penetration. To him this only shows the market is maturing and accelerating growth.

Binance in 2022, processed a whopping $65 billion in trading volume on average every day, at a speed of approximately 0.7 million transactions per second. The entrance of Binance into markets such as Bahrain has for sure added to the growth of the crypto market and ecosystem.

Beware of potential scam the Gulf crypto Bank and GulfCoin

Beware of potential scam the Gulf crypto Bank and GulfCoin

Recently a press release came out discussing the launch of the Gulf Crypto bank which is espoused to be an integrated banking system for both fiat currencies and digital currencies.

As per the release users can withdraw, deposit, swap, do external and internal transfers immediately, securely and with minimal fees. Users will also be provided with a visa or mastercard that can be used at any ATM or online. Another noteworthy feature is the ability to withdraw  crypto assets to any external wallet by creating a wallet inside your bank account. The Bank will also offer personal and corporate loans based on the Islamic laws.

They state that they are participating in the Fintech Crypto Summit in Bahrain as a diamond sponsor and are seeking investment for their coin, GulfCoin. The only summit being mentioned in Bahrain on February 15th is the Fintech and Crypto Summit. Their website doesn’t mention any speakers or sponsors and the event is supposedly only two weeks away!

Looking further into their whitepaper they claim that they are licensed and registered in England, Georgia, Estonia, UAE and Singapore! As they state “Indeed, it is an actual bank project with all the licenses and capital officially registered in England. The Gulf Crypto Bank is registered and licensed in all countries that allow the exchange and circulation of cryptocurrency, such as Georgia,  Estonia, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.”

Red signs, first they are definitely not regulated in the UAE because the UAE has not regulated crypto banks as of yet! Secondly in their whitepaper and on their website there are no mentioning of who the team members are which is a big red flag! Finally they don’t have any social media channels! But most importantly where are their financials for this project!?

There is another GulfCoin project that also seems iffy.  The CEO of that project is Hani Asfar. Yet even this project has the last dated press release as March 2022. In an interview he notes that GulfCoin is being used in 500 locations in the UAE! As stated in the article Asfar says, “Speaking specifically of Dubai, there will be more than 500 locations where token holders can spend Gulf Coin. Plans are underway to make Gulf Coin available in other countries very soon.”

Always do your research because scammers are everywhere! Just because they can pay for a press release or a story on a media outlet does not mean they are legit. Plus just because they say they are licensed in certain countries does not mean they are. Check the licensing authorities ask around.