HAYVN, regulated by UAE Abu Dhabi Global Markets, CIMA, and AUSTRAC has launched its first HAYVN 20 Index Fund a high risk fund that includes crypto assets.

According to their website the fund will include the top 20 digital assets by market capitalization with a maximum weighting of 10% for any asset to increase diversification. It is a broad based index strategy with monthly rebalancing.

The Fund will be managed by HAYVN Asset Management, a British Virgin Island Approved Manager, 100% subsidiary of the HAYVN group.

The primary objective of the HAYVN 20 Segregated Portfolio is to deliver long term capital growth by investing 100% of fund assets within the crypto asset class. The fund is suitable for medium to long-term investors seeking diversified exposure to the broader crypto asset market, obtained through holding the top 20 crypto assets by market capitalisation. The fund aims to provide investors with enhanced returns relative to a pure market-cap weighted top 20 strategy. Investors should expect high levels of volatility and potential drawdown of their investment.

The fund follows a passive rebalancing strategy. The fund is invested in the top 20 crypto assets by market capitalisation, with monthly rebalancing. A maximum component weighting of 10% is utilised to prevent any single asset, and thus single source of risk, from dominating the portfolio. As such, the fund is relatively overexposed to lower market cap assets in the top 20, and less exposed to assets where the 10% asset cap is binding, such as Bitcoin.

According to HAYVN CEO, Christopher Flinos, ” With HAYVN20 we are providing investors with a diversified, low cost and regulated solution to invest in one of the biggest investment trends since the inception of the internet. We believe that risk is fully priced into currenct market conditions, and we want our customers to be able to participate in what we expect will be a positive long-term trend”

A broad based index strategy with monthly rebalancing is a low cost way to capture the long-term growth in digital assets and gain exposure to emerging trends without the inherent manager biases of active asset management.

In addition HAYVN Founder in an interview recently announced that they were preparing for a Series B Funding round in mid-2023 to raise up to $20 million to further scale the business and spin off HAYVN Pay.

HAYVN Co-Founder Christopher Flinos in a recent interview stated that HAYVN is preparing for a series B funding round in the second half of this year and aims to raise up to $20 million, which it will use to further scale the business and potentially spin off Hayvn Pay.

“We are working through that at the moment and are hopeful that we will be able to spin off Hayvn Pay quite quickly, have it on its own and then potentially look at whether the series B is done at the Hayvn level, or whether it is done at the Hayvn Pay [level],” Mr Flinos says.

About 65,000 Oman residents own cryptocurrencies, equivalent to 1.9 percent of the population. In a recent survey carried out by Oman based Souq Analyst, the largest investment community in Oman, it was found that 90% of crypto owners’ are between the ages of 18 and 44. Only 8% are over the age of 45.

The survey results also noted that the majority owners are highly educated, with 66% of them holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Souq Analyst offers stock market news and analysis, investing ideas, earnings calls, charts and portfolio analysis to its community members. In addition the community offers country specific insights on finance, cryptocurrencies, crowd funding & investing as well as access community events, workshop and webinars.

According to the survey an impressive 97.9% of Omani adults have heard about cryptocurrency, indicating an increasing level of awareness. 55% of respondents report owning cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is the most popular followed by Ethereum, Ripple, Tether and other alternative coins.

Mohammed Al-Tamami Co-founder & Chief Commercial officer of Mamun and Founder of Souq Analyst, told LaraontheBlock, “Firstly and foremost data like this is generally useful to everyone. It also offers insights into some unique trends that you didn’t consider say adoption of a certain token or cryptocurrency take XRP ownership in Oman is noticeable according to results in our survey mentioned in the report.”

Over 12% of respondents reported owning more than 10,000 OMR worth of crypto assets equivalent to $26,000. In addition, 62 percent of the respondents plan to increase their cryptocurrency holding in 2023. 

According to the survey, 62% of cryptocurrency owners invest long-term, while 25% use digital assets for learning and education, and 23% trade daily.

Al Tamami founded Souq analyst to be a provider of quality reports on the industry because it’s useful for their own activities in the space including their fund.

The survey is interesting in that it shows that cryptocurrency holders are still bullish on crypto in Oman.

Oman Ministry of Transport, Communications, and IT in partnership with Green Data City (GDC) the next generation data blockchain ecosystem, have launched the first licensed sustainable crypto mining datacenter in Oman, and the GCC.  The delegation witnessed the first Bitcoin officially mined in Oman using immersive cooling technology which will reduce electricity consumption.

The crypto mining datacenter is based in Mirbat  Salalah Oman because of its cooler climate. Under this license, industrial mining companies can now register directly with GDC Mining and operate within the development.

H.E. Said bin Hamoud al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, inaugurated the Sultanate of Oman’s first crypto mining data center, set up by Green Data City. Al Maawali was joined by Dr. Ali bin Amer al Shidhani, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology for Communication and Information Technology, Shaikh Suhail bin Mohammed al Khathiri, Deputy Wali of Mirbat, Talal al Aufi, CEO of OQ, and Olivier Ohnheiser, CEO, Green Data City.

Bitmain, Bitfield, BBGS and Enegix representative were present as well.

Green Data City will develop in two phases. The first phase of development consists of 200MW of mining capacity; the second phase will reach 400MW hyperscale data center capacity, and develop downstream activities including renewable energy, hydrogen, sea-water A/C (SWAC), desalination, food industries and cosmetics. Real estate and hospitality investments will join the development of the new hub, and create the next generation sustainable hyperscale data eco-system in the region.

Large scale mining companies and data center owners can now register directly under the GDC license and operate in the development. The capacities will be allocated in the coming weeks. Al Maawali stated, “The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology seeks to build cooperative partnerships with leading local and international private sector entities in the various types of digital technologies, as the Ministry works to attract foreign investments in this ever-developing industry.”

Olivier Ohnheiser, CEO of Green Data City, added “The south of Oman is strategically positioned  on the network routes and has unique advantages to establish successful and sustainable hyper scale data centers, such as stable economy, large surplus electricity, cool weather in the Salalah region, unique access to cold deep ocean water next to the shore, and high renewable energy.”

On the website, H.E. Ali Shidhani,  Undersecretary for Communications and Information Technology, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology “The Green Data City project has the potential to strengthen the Country’s position on the Data Processing and Blockchain markets, while creating qualified jobs and developing unique green data centers”

Olivier Ohnheiser CEO, Green Data City states on the website,“ Oman is a haven of peace, and the South is a hidden gem. Its natural advantages eclipse other locations in the region like Dubai or NEOM city, in terms of political stability and neutrality, temperate climate, cold water availability and natural wonders. The country is supporting Data and Deep Ocean industries with large and stable power supplies, backed by long term agreements. We could not have hoped for a better environment to implement this vision.”

This comes after Oman’s sovereign wealth fund took an equity stake investing $350 million in US firm Crusoe Energy which uses flared and stranded natural gas to mine crypto. Crusoe was supposedly opening an office in Oman after the investment to deply generators and mining equipment for capturing gas at well sites.

The region has become a hot bed for crypto mining, with UAE making advancements in this area. But as one notes from the comments of CEO of Green Data City, it also seems NEOM city in KSA are working on something similar.

Oman based, cryptocurrency broker, Easy Coins announced on twitter that it had launched its trial of Tether USDT on the Tron Blockchain. Accordingly Easy Coin users in Oman can now purchase TRC20 USDT. At the end of 2021 there were 43 thousand registered crypto wallet addresses in Oman. 

LaraontheBlock spoke with Dr. Khalid M.W. Tahhan, Co-Founder, Easy Coins ME on the recent Tether trial. According to Tahhan the reason for choosing to trial tether is that it is the largest stablecoin and there is a huge demand for it in the Omani market. He adds, “Easy Coins is also in the process of launching its own Omani Riyal backed stablecoin which will be backed 1:1 with Omani Riyals, ensuring a better peg than USDT.”

While most consider the crypto market to be falling and bearish, Tahhan feels otherwise. He states, “We at Easy Coins believe that Bitcoin will remain competing as a reserve asset. We also believe a lot of the tokens produced from thin air will lose their value. Finally and most importantly, we believe these public Decentralized blockchains will be the new payment rails of the future and are developing solutions to utilize them.”

He explains that Easy Coins is the first non-custodial crypto broker in the MENA region. He states, “We always believed in self-custody and hence deployed a compliance focused self-custody solution from the start to ensure nothing like FTX can happen to our customers.”

In terms of crypto regulations in Oman, while still not regulated, Easy Coins is a formally registered startup at the Oman Ministry of Commerce and Industry as well as part of Jadara Program of the Oman Ministry of Transport, communication and Information Technology.

In short he states, “We are self-regulated and follow compliance methodologies from Europe in the interim. We will become a licensed entity once the regulators in Oman are ready to license such activities.”

Easy Coins is the only cryptocurrency broker in the region that accepts all Omani Debit and Credit Cards and offers lower payment processor fees when using our service with Omani Debit Card.

Prior to this announcement Easy Coins was trialing a stablecoin backed by the Oman Riyal with the Oman Water and Waste Water Services Company ( OWWSC), member of Nama Group. Oman Water signed an MOU with Oman based Digital Digits, the creators of Easy coins and Connected Chains to trial “ Hasalah” a stablecoin Wallet.

The companies would trial a cryptographic stablecoin pegged to the Omani Riyal to be utilized as payment from subscribers in select OWWSC customer halls as well as on Easy Coin. Payments will be made using Hasalah Digital Wallet.

In June 2022, The Executive President of the Central Bank of Oman, Mr. Tahir Salim Al Amri, commented during the 7t Edition of the new Age Banking Summit on the topic of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies)  that the Central Bank of Oman is working to issue its own CBDC. 

In Parallel, the Oman Capital Market Authority issued its new Securities Law (46/2022) which stipulates that the authority can “Agree to application of technologies, virtual digital investments or any products or services in the areas related to the provisions of this law, as set out in the Regulation.”

Additionally Oman is working towards tokenization of real-estate. The Oman Capital Market Authority (OCMA) is set to include real estate tokenization in its virtual asset regulatory framework, a report quoting an advisor of the authority has said. According to the report, Oman expects to complete drafting the virtual assets regulatory framework by Q3 of 2022.

As per a recent news report Standard Chartered backed institutional cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage firm focused on institutions, is expanding into Abu Dhabi in 2023. Abu Dhabi will be Zodia Markets first presence in the MENA region as it targets growth opportunities.

Zodia went live in July 2022 in the United Kingdom. U.K.-based Zodia Markets is a sister company of Zodia Custody, the digital assets safekeeping platform. Both firms share the same majority shareholder in SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered.

At the time of its launch in UK the firm, was granted Financial Conduct Authority approval, with spot trading of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). 

Zodia Markets has drafted an application to operate in Abu Dhabi but plans to submit a new one in early 2023 after extended talks with regulators.

Chief executive Usman Ahmad told Financial News London that Abu Dhabi is attractive because it has been “forward-looking with respect to putting the regulatory framework in place”.

The United Arab Emirates has sought to capitalize on the lack of clear crypto regulations in Europe and the USA. Abu Dhabi adopted a virtual asset regulatory framework in 2018 through ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market), as did Dubai in 2022 with its VARA regulatory authority. 

Binance Pay is once again being used in the UAE to buy products using cryptocurrencies. UAE based Bikeera, a retailer for bicycles, scooters, electric mobility vehicles has teamed up with Binance Pay to offer virtual asset payment services.

Bikeera says the move aims to help reduce GHG emissions, carbon footprint and improve the health and lifestyle of GCC residents. Purchasers can pay in BNB, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Already Majid Al Futtaim, Virtuzone, Palazzo Versace, EazyPay and others are using Binance Pay in the region.

Anthony Boukather, CEO of Bikeera, stated, “Bikeera aims to provide sustainable mobility alternatives that promote a healthy lifestyle and a better planet. By partnering up with Binance, we are giving more flexibility to customers in terms of payment methods. We are proud to have been selected as one of the first companies in this program, and would like to congratulate Binance on their recent announcement about receiving the MVP license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). This most recent license is an acknowledgement of the compliance and safety processes behind the Binance ecosystem.”

Nadeem Ladki, executive director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Binance added, “Binance is committed to supporting innovative and impact driven businesses such as Bikeera. As a leader in this space, Bikeera’s decision to accept virtual assets payments via Binance Pay empowers the sports community in the UAE and helps with the adoption of more efficient payment methods.”

OpenNode, a “Bitcoin-as-a-payment-network” infrastructure company, has started testing a Bitcoin payment processing and payout solution in Bahrain, with the Central Bank of Bahrain’s regulatory Sandbox.

OpenNode intends to provide the infrastructure to help the country grow its economy and will showcase why Bitcoin is synonymous with better business.

Bahrain was one of the first to grant a crypto exchange license to RAIN crypto exchange and since then has accepted in Binance and others.

The CBB authorized OpenNode to participate in the new Regulatory Sandbox Framework that allows FinTech firms to test their ideas and solutions in the Kingdom.

OpenNode intends to bring payment innovation to Bahrain in using Bitcoin. 

Afnan Rahman, CEO and Co-Founder at OpenNode, stated”This is a watershed moment for the people of Bahrain, the Middle East and the Bitcoin economy as a whole. OpenNode’s leading Bitcoin infrastructure solution continues to pave the way for countries, governments and reputable financial institutions to adopt the Bitcoin standard and transact on the lightning network.”

OpenNode  is currently active in more than 160 countries around the world.

Dalal Buhejji, Executive Director – Investment Development for Financial Services at the Bahrain Economic Development Board said, “We are proud to have worked with the Central Bank towards establishing a strong financial services ecosystem within the Kingdom of Bahrain. As a country, we have always been ahead of the curve in adopting Fintech solutions thanks to our regulator’s flexibility and forward thinking. Financial services is an important sector within our economy, and fintech platforms such as the one soon to be tested by OpenNode are essential to ensure we continue to innovate while simultaneously adhering to best regulatory measures.”

Dubai ultra-luxury Hotel Palazzo Versace is now accepting crypto payments through Binance. The hotel will allow guests to pay for dining, stays, and spa experiences using cryptocurrencies.

The hotel located in Jaddaf Waterfront has partnered with Binance, cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, to offer the guests the possibility to settle payments in various cryptocurrencies such as BNB, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. These transactions will take place through Binance payment gateway.

Starting from 7th September, the hotel will accept crypto for room stays, restaurants, meetings, and events, all the guests will have the option to pay at the property using the Binance application. The next phase, online payment integration, will go live soon after. Palazzo Versace Dubai will also accept cryptocurrency payments on their eCommerce platforms, which include Gift Vouchers and Flower Shop.

The Managing Director of Palazzo Versace Dubai and founder of Palazzo Hospitality, Monther Darwish comments: “We continue to be the pioneers of innovation and growth in the hospitality business. Accepting cryptocurrencies as payments is yet another innovative step that we have taken towards making our business future-ready”.

Nadeem Ladki, Head of Business Development for Binance in MENA, stated, “Palazzo Versace’s ability to now accept payments in virtual assets is a reflection of how the hospitality industry in Dubai is at the forefront of innovation as we move into a more digital world. Payments is just the beginning and we look forward to building on this partnership together.”

In the past few days the Saudis NFT Collection has topped the OpenSea volume charts just below cryptopunks. The Saudis Free to Mint Collection totaled 6,700 ETH (roughly $7.7 million) in sales volume since its mint on July 9th 2022.  It is now sold out!! The Saudis is a collection of 5,555 NFT, an exclusive club, max bidding to the top.

Each Saudi is unique and programmatically generated from over 80 possible traits. All collectibles are on the Ethereum blockchain. The Saudi NFT will grant its holder a Sheikh status in the Saudis Kingdom and allow owners access to upcoming venues.

The Saudis NFT also has onchain metadata as one of its features given that they store their metadata on their smart contracts unlike most NFTs which rely on external sources like AWS (Amazon Web Services) or IPFS to host metadata. Storing the metadata on chain helps to reduce the costs. Not only does this metadata include the name and traits, but it also includes data to generate the image itself

As per a tweet on Saudis NFT, the NFT collection had been flying, topping the OpenSea Charts with almost 7,000 ETH traded since the weekend.

The collection of 5,555 NFTs were free to mint on July 9th a Saturday and sold out within hours.

The project’s floor price (which is the price of the cheapest edition currently for sale on the open market) is around 0.75 ether (roughly $867), after peaking at around 1.3 ETH (roughly $1,650) on Saturday.

As per a Coindesk article, the release came with its fair share of NFT influencer drama, with fingers being pointed at popular Twitter personalities who were able to profit off early knowledge of the mint.

According to Saxo Bank press release utilizing data driven from its crypto FX platform, 400 million USD of crypto FX trading was recorded in the MENA region compared to global trading volumes surpassing 3.40 billion USD. These findings were recorded since the initiation of Crypto FX in May 2022.

Saxo Bank noted that Bitcoin and Ethereum were the most popular currencies being traded in the MENA region with 57 percent for Bitcoin and 40 percent for Ethereum. This is in line with global trading which puts Bitcoin-USD at 45 percent of crypto forex trading volumes and  Ethereum-USD at 44 percent volumes. 

Stanislav Kostyukhin, Commercial Owner, Trader, Saxo Bank, said: “These figures show the high interest in this nascent asset class within the region while also highlighting the confidence that investors have in our framework as the market continues to evolve.  Our crypto offering ensures clients have a fully compliant product, with best execution and best practice, an important framework in a space that is otherwise extremely volatile and unregulated.”

Damian Hitchen, CEO of Saxo Bank MENA, highlighted some of the major developments regionally which are helping to increase demand.  He said: “There is no doubt that the UAE is a leading global player in this space. We are seeing high levels of interest and trading from our own clients in this nascent asset class, and we understand the need to balance this increased demand for access with the regulatory and investor protections that are commonplace in more mature asset classes.