As the UAE commodities free zone, DMCC announced its H1 2024 performance, it was obvious that the biggest growth sectors came from crypto and technology entities, with their crypto Centre onboarding 64 new companies including 7 virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

As per the press release, the growth in crypto company registrations reflected an 11% growth of crypto entities from the beginning of the year.

In March DMCC announced the number of new companies that enrolled in 2023, with 123 new crypto and blockchain entities registering at the crypto center, culminating in 600 companies in total. Since then the number has increased by 11% which means there are now more than 660 crypto entities in the freezone. such as Bybit exchange and Solana Foundation were some of the new entrants to DMCC.

In 2022, DMCC had announced that it had registered 500 crypto blockchain entities.

Crypto and virtual assets were not the only reason that H1 performance witnessed the registration of 1,023 new members, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and gaming. DMCC registered 14 gaming and nine AI companies.

DMCC is also preparing for the launch of its new AI centre. It has partnered with the Dubai-based artificial intelligence firm Qx Lab AI for the AI center. The AI Centre is anticipated to be the next leading innovation platform for advancing AI adoption and developing real life use cases.

Feryal Ahmadi, Chief Operating Officer, DMCC, added: “At the start of the year we set out to consolidate our position across multiple high-growth sectors. This strategy is now bearing fruit with considerable gains recorded in H1 both in the physical commodities space as well as in technology and services industries.”

DMCC registered companies now total 25,000 companies. the freezone now accounts for 15% of all foreign direct investment (FDI) in Dubai, up from 11% last year, as well as 7% of the emirate’s GDP.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMCC, said, “Now accounting for 15% of Dubai’s FDI, our performance in the first half of 2024 demonstrates both the consistently strong investment growth across our district as well as the continued appeal of Dubai as a major global trade hub.”