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!

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.

UAE HAYVN Subsidiary, HAYVN Asset Management launches crypto Index Fund

UAE HAYVN Subsidiary, HAYVN Asset Management launches crypto Index Fund

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.

62 percent of Oman crypto owners plan to increase crypto holding in 2023

62 percent of Oman crypto owners plan to increase crypto holding in 2023

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.

MENA based Arts DAO NFT community partners with Crypto wallet provider Ledger

MENA based Arts DAO NFT community partners with Crypto wallet provider Ledger

MENA based Arts DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and NFT and Web3 community with presence in UAE, has partnered with Ledger, a digital asset storage provider, to offer hardware crypto wallet solutions to its members. 

Arts DAO is currently investing in blue-chip NFTs, supporting major corporations with their Web3 strategy, and backing great founders building in Web3.

France-based Ledger, which employs more than 800 people has sold more than five million devices to customers in 200 different countries and is responsible for securing 20 percent of all crypto assets stored globally as of today.

‘100 Ledger NFTs,’ the first Ledger NFTs ever released, were part of a limited-edition collection created by Arts DAO to honor this groundbreaking partnership. Additionally, Arts DAO provided community members with branded ledgers, allowing NFT owners to claim a physical Ledger hard wallet.

“Ledgers are a so-called ‘cold storage’ solution,” explains Danosch Zahedi, Co-Founder of Arts DAO. “People are always looking for safer places to store their cryptocurrency, and thanks to decentralized finance, anyone with a cold storage wallet may basically act as their own bank. This is crucial in light of recent market volatility in the cryptocurrency space as well as future-defining events like the FTX collapse.”

According to Anas Bhurtun, Co-Founder of Arts DAO, “Dubai has constantly shown its dedication to the virtual economy, with historic regulatory developments providing a framework for companies dealing with digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.”

As explained by Ledger, what you actually own when you purchase a cryptocurrency is a “private key,” a vital piece of data required to approve outgoing transactions on the blockchain network. Anyone who is aware of this key may use the related funds. There is no bank or other organization to back you up or provide you with a replacement if your private keys are lost, stolen, or if you keep them on a device that malfunctions. As a result, you lose access to your cryptocurrency.

Arts DAO advises clients to use a hardware wallet solution, where your private keys are kept offline in a hardware wallet so only you have access to them. As a result, your wallet is no longer at risk of being compromised by hackers who can’t get to the device or the private keys inside. Even if a hacker manages to take over your computer, they won’t be able to access your crypto assets by stealing your private keys if you have a hardware wallet. The risk of hacking is reduced because your private key is stored offline.

Arts DAO is looking to expand into many more avenues with their clients, including blockchain gaming, blockchain streaming and music, and digital fashion. The two main pillars of Arts DAO are community and consulting. With hundreds of members as of today and rapidly growing, the community is bringing together the Middle East’s largest Web 3.0 community.

A look at the top MENA crypto blockchain Google search trends in 2022

A look at the top MENA crypto blockchain Google search trends in 2022

In 2022, it appears there is a high level of public interest from the number of online keyword searches for crypto, crypto payments, blockchain, metaverse, NFTs and other related terms. These keywords, for instance, are the top searches in Arab countries. This comes as no surprise as nations in the MENA region were among the list of countries receiving crypto, with the greater region becoming one of the regions that saw the most growth in crypto regulations.

According to Chainalysis, while the MENA region is one of the smallest crypto markets, its growth to $566 billion received in cryptocurrency between July 2021 and June 2022 shows adoption is rising rapidly.

UAE places 10th for highest search regions for ‘crypto’

As per Google Trends, there were high inquiries for the term “crypto” in the country from December 2021 to December 2022. The high volume of searches for “crypto” in the Arab state placed it at 10th, followed by Morocco at 11th place, Lebanon (17th) and Tunisia (38th). Several MENA countries placed high in search queries among 73 nations.

The UAE went up two places compared to the results of the Google Trend search for the same period in 2021. Before, the country was in 12th place out of the top 63 countries. Lebanon retained its position, while Saudi Arabia dropped out of the list in 2022. The Kingdom placed 45th in 2021.

The UAE has been at the forefront of crypto regulation and licensing. In 2022, it has awarded licenses to top crypto exchanges such as Binance, Kraken and Crypto.com, among other platforms, and it also welcomed hundreds of other crypto and blockchain firms.

In a Crypto Oasis annual report entitled, “Crypto Ecosystem in the UAE,” the country’s booming blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem resulted in the employment of 7,000 people across 1,400 blockchain crypto entities currently operating in the country.

Lebanon is also no surprise, given its position as the third largest recipient of crypto in 2022, per a Chainalysis report.

Meanwhile, “Bitcoin” was the most searched keyword in terms of cryptocurrencies in the Arab world, beating “Ethereum.” Bitcoin took 80 percent of the searches, with the UAE settling at 22nd and Morocco at 50th among the top countries that have looked up the term.

In 2021, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt topped the list of countries that searched for Bitcoin. This could be in connection to Bitcoin being the most invested in cryptocurrency as well as the most volatile in 2022. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has a market cap of $323.1 billion, followed by Ethereum with $148 billion, according to the estimates by CoinMarketCap.

As for Ethereum, it was searched for most in the UAE and Lebanon among Arab countries in 2022. They are followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco.

Notably, only two Arab countries in 2022 had the biggest searches for crypto prices, namely the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Both the UAE and KSA are considered the biggest crypto trading markets in the GCC region. The 2022 Geography of Cryptocurrency report by Chainalysis found that Saudi Arabia was one of the strongest markets, with cryptocurrency transaction volumes surging 195 percent year-on-year.

Overall, the MENA region accounts for 9.2 percent of global cryptocurrency trading, up from 7 percent in 2021.

UAE only Arab country with high searches for ‘crypto payments’

The UAE took the number 2 slot globally in terms of regions with high volume searches for the term “crypto payments,” bested by only Nigeria. The list of 16 countries also included Singapore, the UK, the USA and Germany.

The introduction of the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) and the openness in the UAE for crypto payments have fueled the curiosity of the community. The country’s friendly stance toward crypto has urged top real estate entities and luxury and F&B outlets to accept crypto as a payment method.

Search for ‘CBDC’ grew exponentially at end of 2022

While more countries explore the opportunities of adopting CBDCs, Google searches for the term surged in November 2022. In terms of countries with the highest searches, the UAE came in at 18th place out of the top 68 countries. Other Arab countries on the list were Morocco (47th), Egypt (65th), and Saudi Arabia (67th).

The UAE completed its first CBDC pilot mBridge this year and is expected to continue to move forward with its implementation.

Morocco and Egypt join regions with top searches for ‘blockchain’

Despite an overall decrease in “blockchain” searches this year, several Arab countries topped the list among 72 countries. The UAE took eighth place, followed by Tunisia (15th), Lebanon (17th), Morocco (21st), Egypt (73rd) and Saudi Arabia (74th).

Notably, Lebanon is looking into blockchain and crypto as a means to solve many of its economic and fiscal problems.

Lebanon: Takes 8th place in NFT searches in top search regions globally

The search for NFTs went down in 2022 compared to 2021. Regardless, NFT appears to be an interest to Lebanon residents, with the country placing in eighth place. Lebanon was followed by other Arab countries, such as Morocco (10th), UAE (11th), and Algeria (57th).

In 2021, the UAE placed seventh among the top 31 countries that searched for “Buy NFTs.” Meanwhile, in 2022, Lebanon came in second, passing the UAE, which placed fourth.

Lebanese artists have increasingly issued NFTs in 2022, with more Lebanon residents purchasing the asset to offset the declining Lebanese currency in addition to their growing interest in this crypto segment. Moreover, several Lebanese NFT marketplaces have launched this year, such as OasisX.

Top google searches for crypto exchanges in MENA

When it came to searches for “crypto exchange,” the UAE stood in fifth place, followed by Lebanon (27th), Morocco (45th) and KSA (47th) among the top 65 countries.

Notably, “Binance” topped the list of searches in 95 regions. In the Arab world, the exchange was mostly searched by people from the UAE (ninth), Morocco (15th), Lebanon (16th), Qatar (36th), Kuwait (45th) and Jordan (56th).

Binance has been ramping up its operations within the MENA region in 2022. Within the year, the largest exchange by trading volume received an MVP license in the UAE and a full operating license in Bahrain.

As for home-grown crypto exchanges, CoinMENA was searched for most in Iran, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. . Meanwhile, BitOasis and CoinMENA were equally searched for in Oman.

BitOasis also topped the searches in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Turkey. Noteworthy is that there were only 20 highest search regions for these terms.  BitOasis also had more searches in UAE and KSA than CoinMENA.

BitOasis has a strong presence in the UAE that dates back to pre-license days. According to BitOasis Founder Ola Doudin, they are actively working with regulators in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere across the region to introduce their respective crypto regulations.

UAE is the most metaverse-curious country globally in terms of searches

When it came to global searches for the term “metaverse,” the UAE came in second place, passing Singapore, which placed seventh. In Last year’s trends, there were almost no searches on Google for metaverse before October 2021.

In 2022, Dubai introduced its Metaverse Strategy, which aims to create 40,000 virtual jobs and add $4 billion to the emirate’s economy over the next five years.

Lebanon tops searches for crypto mining

Lebanon becomes the top Arab country in terms of searches for “crypto mining,” placing third. It’s followed by the UAE, Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco, KSA and Egypt.

Notably, Lebanon had the highest number of crypto-mining activities. This spike can be attributed to residents turning to crypto mining as an alternative source of income, given the financial demise of the Lebanese Lira. Lebanon’s low electricity costs also made the country an ideal destination for crypto miners.

As for UAE, it is also one of the attractive hubs for crypto miners in the MENA region, given its open stance on crypto, as well as the projects being launched in the country.

In conclusion, while crypto had a bearish year in 2022, this was not reflected in the google search trends especially when it comes to Arab countries specifically in the GCC. The MENA region and GCC country residents have shown considerable interest in crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and blockchain. These search trends reflect a growing interest in the region for these technologies.

Looking at these trends one can imply that crypto mining in countries like Lebanon are a big part of the crypto ecosystem. It might also be inferred that crypto payments interest will continue to grow in the UAE as will CBDC interest.

The fact is that despite the tumultuous year that crypto and blockchain went through in 2022, we will see more of them in 2023 and it looks like the MENA and Arab region will lead.

Egyptian Central Bank forms internal and external committees for CBDC implementation study

Egyptian Central Bank forms internal and external committees for CBDC implementation study

Egyptian Central bank has announced that it is currently studying the implementation of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) which should offer a safer and more secure replacement to current cryptocurrencies and the risks associated with them while making use of digital economy.

The Egyptian Central Bank in its 2021 financial stability report stated that it had created an internal and external committee which includes representatives from different Ministerial entities headed by the governor of the Central Bank to study the implementation of CBDCs in Egypt.

It also noted that it is working with external counterparts to study the potential risks and benefits of CBDC implementations. 

Cryptocurrency trading in Egypt is still not regulated and the Central Bank of Egypt has on several occasions mentioned the risk involved in dealing with cryptocurrencies and the fact that it is illegal in the country to do so.

In September, the central bank of Egypt reiterated its warning against dealing in any types of cryptocurrencies, saying that crypto is risky, highly volatile, and is used in financial crimes and e-piracy. At the time the Central Bank of Egypt stated it would fine anyone who violates the Law No 194 of 2020 which prohibits issuing, trading, promoting cryptocurrencies, operating crypto exchanges or any other related activities. The Central Bank will fine violators up to $516,000 ( 10 million LE) or face imprisonment.

The Egyptian central bank had issued a similar warning about cryptocurrencies in January 2018, specifically naming Bitcoin. At that time the Central Bank had noted, “Cryptocurrencies are not backed by any tangible assets and are not supervised by any regulators worldwide, and consequently, they lack the official governmental guarantee and support enjoyed by the other official currencies issued by central banks.”

Yet Egypt has one of the highest crypto usages across Africa and Middle East. In January 2022, TripleA published a report which noted that Morocco topped the Arab countries in terms of crypto ownership, followed by Egypt, then UAE and KSA. The report stated that in 2021 global crypto ownership was estimated at an average of 3.9 percent, 300 million crypto users and 18,000 businesses already accepting crypto payments.

Egyptian national Husayn Hashim, Listing manager of Betconix crypto exchange regulated out of Estonia, states, “The Central Bank of Egypt’s move comes within the framework of the Egyptian government’s efforts to shift to digital payments and achieve financial inclusion. The move is also in line with the growth in the number of Egyptian cryptocurrency traders, as according to the latest estimates, about 1.8% of Egyptians trade cryptocurrencies despite the Egyptian government’s ban on that. I believe that the Egyptian government will soon legally allow the trading of digital currencies after completing the issuance of the legislation regulating this.”

Central Bank of Morocco ends 2022 with launch of draft crypto bill

Central Bank of Morocco ends 2022 with launch of draft crypto bill

On December 20th, the Central Bank of Morocco represented by its governor Abdellatif Jouahri announced in Rabat Morocco that the draft crypto bill to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies is ready.

The announcement was carried out at the press briefing following BAM’s 4th and final quarterly meeting of 2022. Jouahri stressed that the full draft is ready to put in place a proper regulatory framework.

Jouahri stated, “Discussions are to be held with all stakeholders, including the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority (AMMC) and the Insurance and Social Security Supervisory Authority (ACAPS),” 

“We proceeded to a specific definition of the cryptocurrency and prepared a general public survey that details the specifics and use of this virtual currency in Morocco,” he added.

In June 2022, The Central Bank of Morocco, Bank Al Maghrib, announced during its second quarterly meeting that it would be introducing a cryptocurrency bill soon. Abdul Latif Al Jawhari, Governor of Central Bank of Morocco noted that the crypto CBDC committee created in February 2022 is putting in place an appropriate regulatory framework to combine innovation, tech and consumer protection.

He also noted that the crypto bill is being benchmarked against global experiences with IMF and World Bank. He also noted that this regulatory framework will also update the legislation on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

In March 2022, during a session with media He revealed that the Central Bank of Morocco had created a council headed by him to oversee the required regulations for both cryptocurrencies and CBDCs. He stated, “We are in discussions with the Central Banks of friendly nations such as Switzerland, Sweden, and France as well as international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank to learn from their expertise and experience.”

Despite the fact that the Moroccan government considers crypto illegal in the country, Morocco has the highest number of crypto owners within the Arab region, followed closely by Egypt. 2.38 percent of Moroccan population own crypto.

Saudi Telecom in Bahrain first telecom operator in GCC to accept crypto payments

Saudi Telecom in Bahrain first telecom operator in GCC to accept crypto payments

stc Bahrain has become the first telecom operator in Bahrain to accept cryptocurrencies through its partnership with Eazy Financial Services, a leading Bahraini Payment Services provider specializing in POS and online payment gateway. EazyPay uses BinancePay and wallet to offer this service to more than 5000 POS terminals in Bahrain. 

The collaboration with Eazy Financial Services is a strategic step from stc Bahrain towards expanding the payment options with the future of currency to address the increasing demand for flexible and easy-to-use crypto payments. 

stc Bahrain CEO Nezar Banabeela, stated, “Rapid digitization across the globe is transforming all aspects of our lives, and payments are the most crucial element. From online shopping and streaming videos to money transfers, almost every digital activity relies on a payment system. We are incredibly proud to be the first telecom operator in Bahrain to accept cryptocurrency payments, a demonstration of our strong focus on advancing Bahrain’s fintech sector as world-class digital enablers. We continue to leverage the potential of the digital economy, which is limitless, make accepting crypto a seamless process and increase adoption as crypto is the future of payments.”

Nayef Tawfiq Al Alawi, Founder & CEO of Eazy Financial Services, added,”  We are very proud today to become the partners of STC Bahrain, The world-class digital enabler. This Partnership enables stc Bahrain to be the first telecom operator in the Kingdom to accept cryptocurrency payments in a regulated, secure and extremely fast manner. The benefits of bringing in EazyPay to STC Bahrain will ensure simple and effective transaction journeys for customers, with a partner which is able to ensure first-class service.” 

While, Tameem Al Moosawi, General Manager at Binance Bahrain, said:  “stc is known to be at the forefront of technology and innovation and, with this partnership, has set the benchmark for how telecom operators can enable the transition to the Web3 economy by accepting crypto payments. We are excited to be collaborating in this space to streamline services for customers and is once again a testament to Bahrain’s progressive regulatory framework and banking structure” 

tAt the same time Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Co (GIG Bahrain) has signed a payment services agreement with Eazy Financial Services ‘EazyPay’, Bahrain’s leading and most innovative payment services provider to allow for crypto payments  via ‘Binance App’, which is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, making GIG Bahrain the first insurance company in the Mena region to accept premium payments as crypto assets payments in  regulated, secure and extremely fast manner.

Local Oman crypto broker Easy Coins launches Tether USDT on its platform

Local Oman crypto broker Easy Coins launches Tether USDT on its platform

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.