Lebanese media figure embraces crypto, blockchain and the metaverse

Lebanese media figure embraces crypto, blockchain and the metaverse

Well know Lebanese media figure Wissam Breidy embraces crypto and partners with UAE’s Crypto Oasis ecosystem to help educate the region on Blockchain and Web3 which will increase adoption and engagement.

Breidy will use his credibility as a popular and accomplished celebrity to help publicize the inherent potential of these disruptive products. As an Arab cultural icon, Breidy is the new ambassador for blockchain and Web3 for Crypto Oasis, the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystem in the world. As one of the most entertaining Arab TV show hosts in the recent era, Wissam Breidy will bring relevance and relatability as Crypto Oasis looks to scale blockchain and Web3 adoption in the region.

Wissam is very passionate about decentralized technology and is committed to creating awareness within the Arab World. “The Future of the Internet has arrived. Web3, NFTs, and Metaverse are our tools for Universal State Layers with Open Gates. Embrace it –don’t be late!,” Breidy says.

“We are delighted to welcome Wissam Breidy on board as our new strategic partner,” commented Ralf Glabischnig, founder of Crypto Oasis. “With Wissam’s strong industry knowledge and outreach, we expect this partnership to help educate the wider Arab Community on Web3 and blockchain technology and tap into something that hasn’t been explored before. We are also looking forward to working with him as an initiator for arte, and to build meaningful connections, educate and inform the market about the ever-growing and evolving ecosystem.”

As a strategic advisor to Crypto Oasis, Wissam will promote the adoption of blockchain and ease out the complexities of the metaverse to make people more familiar with these seemingly tangled digital landscapes for the Arabic speaking population.

For arte, the Web3 Meta-Community by Crypto Oasis, Wissam will help bring together Web3 communities and individuals worldwide to create an environment that enables individuals in the art, NFT and Metaverse area to engage and interact continuously and effortlessly. arte is a global platform focused on creativity, community-building and entrepreneurship in the Web3 space. It aims to bring changemakers in art and technology to discuss the future of digital assets and the metaverse. arte intends to work on educating the wider public on blockchain technologies and Wissam will be a major contributor in the success of the initiative.

Saudi Aramco invests millions into Blockchain smart contract provider

Saudi Aramco invests millions into Blockchain smart contract provider

For the fourth time since 2019, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco has participated in an investment round in Data Gumbo, the blockchain enabled smart contract provider. This time Data Gumbo raised 4 million USD in its Series C round led by Saudi Aramco Ventures and Equinor, Norway’s energy operator.

In 2019, Data Gumbo the Houston based blockchain Technology Company which had developed a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform to streamline smart contracts management for industrial customers, completed a 6 million USD Series A equity funding round co-led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, and Equinor.

Then in 2020, Data Gumbo, closed its Series B funding round of 4 million USD led by new investor L37, a Bay Area and Houston-based venture capital company, with Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures as a participant in the round.

In 2021 once more Data Gumbo closed a Series B funding round totaling 7.7 million USD with follow-on investments led by Equinor Ventures, and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.

So far, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures has been one of the consistent investors in Data Gumbo. So it was no surprise to once again see Saudi Aramco invest in Data Gumbo’s Series C round, and be a lead investor as well. Saudi Aramco given the amount of investments raised to date by Data Gumbo, has definitely invested millions into the startup.

This funding round follows a year of impressive growth for Data Gumbo, which has introduced the first ever Smart Contract Marketplace with forty smart contract templates ready to be deployed for immediate reduction in transactional friction and grown to over 180 enterprises participating in Data Gumbo’s smart contract network.

Data Gumbo also opened its offices in KSA in 2022. At the time Data Gumbo stated that it was establishing a local presence to take advantage of the regional business opportunities ripe for smart contract network adoption.

Commenting on the recent fund raising, William Fox, CEO of Data Gumbo stated, “We have continued to lead the way in the adoption of smart contracts for industrial use. The partnership with Equinor and Saudi Aramco, and their associated supply chains and partnerships, will continue the momentum for the Data Gumbo’s smart contract network.”

By tapping into existing IIoT data sources to trigger confirmation and payment automation of contractual commercial terms, organizations are able to eliminate the time-consuming process of validating invoices and transactions and fully automating the procure-to-pay and order-to-cash processes. 

Data Gumbo plans to expand its reach, helping any organization who captures field data today to streamline their back office processes and realize time and cost savings.

“While we started in energy, we already have value for bulk commodity haulage, trucking and shipping, with plans to parlay our momentum into other global industries,” commented Andrew Bruce, Founder of Data Gumbo. “Wherever two or more organizations share a contractual relationship that can be verified with a digital source of data, opportunities abound to realize efficiencies and cost savings utilizing our blockchain network.”

Frank Andrasco, Senior Investment Director, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures stated, “Distributed ledger technologies bring win-win efficiencies between industrial companies and their suppliers, and Data Gumbo is at the forefront of introducing this innovation. While they have started in the energy sector, Data Gumbo’s platform has broad industrial applicability.”

To date Saudi Aramco’s Venture arm has participated in all the investment rounds of Data Gumbo, which  has raised a total of close to 21 million USD. One thing known for sure is that Saudi Aramco is backing the Blockchain smart contract service provider, and much more will be seen in the future.

Dubai Virtual Assets regulator licenses digital asset fund of 1 billion USD

Dubai Virtual Assets regulator licenses digital asset fund of 1 billion USD

VARA has made public all the entities that are currently licensed under its authority. The entities fall under various categories including crypto exchanges, DeFi custodians, DeFi asset managers, DeFi service providers, and DLT platforms.

 As per VARA website in terms of native crypto exchanges, 13 crypto asset exchanges hold licenses. They include both international and regional players such as Binance, BitOasis, ByBit, CoinMENA, CoinMetro, Crypto.com, FTX (fully regulated with MVP license), GCEX Huobi, Midchains, Rain and OKx.

In terms of DeFi custodians, VARA has registered Hex Trust, Komainu, Monstera and ZampFi Labs . Hex Trust as one example is a fully-licensed and insured provider of bank-grade custody for digital assets. Through their proprietary platform Hex Safe™, they deliver custody, DeFi, brokerage, and financing solutions for financial institutions, digital asset organizations, corporate and private clients.

While ZampFi, is founded by: Amit Jain who was previously the Managing Director at Sequoia Capital. ZampFi is a digital banking entity.

VARA is also offering regulated licenses for DeFi asset managers. Names on the roster include Brevan Howard, Fintonia, Galaxy Digital, Nine Blocks and Noia Capital.

Bravan Howard asset management firm on Dubai VARA’s list has recently pulled off the largest crypto hedge fund launch as per the Block media. The firm’s flagship digital assets focused vehicle raised more than $1 billion from institutional investors, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.

Brevan Howard Digital Asset Multi-Strategy Fund lost a scant 4% to 5% from inception through the end of June 2022, according to the source, even as the one-two punch of the implosion of Terra stablecoin UST and the insolvency of crypto lenders, such as Celsius and Voyager, locked price action and liquidity into respective death spirals.  “Their returns, relative to the market, are unbelievable,” another source adds.

Their strategies, including quantitative trades and relative-value plays, are implemented by teams of portfolio managers structured in so-called “pods” that feature supporting analysts and engineers. The division, additionally, now has more than 20 external blockchain engineers working under full-time retainers.

The global-macro-focused Brevan runs about $23 billion overall across a wide range of asset classes.

Brevan Howard Digital Asset Multi-Strategy Fund remains open to external capital, pursuant to a minimum check of $5 million. Its limited partners include a number of the world’s largest and most sophisticated hedge fund investors, including entities that have historically exclusively backed traditional financiers.

As for Fintonia, its Group founder Adrian Chng stated, “Dubai is making significant strides towards establishing itself as a virtual assets hub and creating a conducive environment for the industry’s growth. The virtual asset licence marks an important milestone in our aspiration to have a presence in every region where there are inn

As for Fintonia, its Group founder Adrian Chng stated, “Dubai is making significant strides towards establishing itself as a virtual assets hub and creating a conducive environment for the industry’s growth. The virtual asset licence marks an important milestone in our aspiration to have a presence in every region where there are innovative Web3 and crypto companies, enabling us to connect and collaborate with members of the crypto native ecosystem and the traditional financial services industry.”

Recently added is Nine Blocks Capital Management which was launched by PwC’s former global crypto head Henri Arslanian. Nine Capital has launched a $75m crypto hedge fund focused on institutional investors with the aim of becoming the world’s leading institutional grade crypto asset management firm as per a statement from the fund on launch.

The new fund is backed by $75m from Hong Kong-based hedge fund Nine Masts Capital Management, with additional investments from other partners.

Noia Capital has also joined the roster and is a Luxembourg based actively managed alternative asset manager pursuing excellence in digital assets and blockchain technology investments. As per the website the company is registered with CSSF and FSMA.

In terms of DeFi service providers the list includes Amber Group, Equiti, ScallopX, and TPS Capital.

VARA has also offered licenses to DLT platforms that include names such as Calvin Cheng Web3.0 Holdings, Mcontent, Polygon, and Woonkly Labs.

Finally in terms of DeFi services VARA has the following registered entities, BRE Holdings, Eros Investments, Hike, and Prypto.

VARA has yet to license NFT marketplace entities, crypto mining entities, and security token platforms.

Security token regulations to be issued in Saudi Arabia by end of 2022

Security token regulations to be issued in Saudi Arabia by end of 2022

In an interview with CNBC Al Arabia, Yazeed Saleh Aldemaigi Deputy, Strategy & International Affairs, at Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced that regulations for Security Token offerings (STO) will be out before the end of 2022 in Saudi Arabia.

As per the interview, application for STO offerings will be available on the CMA digital platform by end of 2022. He added that the Fintech Lab at CMA has been working on finding the most appropriate environments for FinTech startups.

The STO regulations that will come out at the end of 2022 will help to attract foreign investment firms interested in the FinTech domain in KSA as well as support local companies.

The Fintech Lab from CMA was launched in 2017.  It aimed to provide a regulatory framework that is conducive for the innovation of Financial Technology (FinTech) in the capital market within the Kingdom.

One of the business models under the Fintech Lab was related to use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to arrange the Offering of Securities and Custody Services. It is a platform that uses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to arrange the offering of securities (Sukuk as a preliminary stage) to investors, in coordination with the Issuer and the Authorized Person (AP) assigned by the Issuer as an Offering Advisor.

Saudi Central Bank Moves forward with virtual assets and CBDC program

Saudi Central Bank Moves forward with virtual assets and CBDC program

The Saudi Central Bank, better known as SAMA, has appointed Mohsen AlZahrani, former Managing Director of Financial Services at Accenture KSA as Virtual Assets and CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) program Lead. AlZahrani recently announced this on his LinkedIn profile.

This is a significant announcement given that KSA Central Bank has been working on its CBDC project since it announced its Aber project with UAE back in 2019. At the time both The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) clarified in a joint statement that one of the objectives of launching the common digital currency project ” Aber” is for use in financial settlements between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UAE through Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologies.

 It was known that IBM was one of the vendors working on the project.

In addition six commercial banks, three from UAE and three from KSA participated in the joint digital currency project “Aber”. The banks were AL Rajhi, Alinma ,Riyadh Bank, FAB , Emirates NBD , Dubai Islamic bank.

 In 2020 both Central Banks released their final report on Aber Pilot. As per the report Aber project identified further areas that need to be explored in the future if the approach of a single digital currency is to be implemented. The key amongst these was the need to understand impacts to the monetary policy of participating states and to address, in particular, the means by which interest is calculated and disbursed to the commercial banks in each jurisdiction and how this can be applied with a single digital currency.

The report also noted that in terms of future work, there were many directions that could evolve. Firstly, it could provide the basis for a backup to domestic and regional RTGS; providing a more distributed and potentially resilient alternative to the centralized systems that are implemented or being implemented today. Secondly, by offering DLT-based payments rails,  the possibility to expand to Delivery versus Payment (DvP) scenarios such as using the Aber network as a means of settlement for other forms of transaction, such as the sale of bonds or other dematerialized assets. Thirdly, there was the possibility of extending it geographically to include regional or other international central banks or linking heterogeneous networks together.

In 2021 Saudi’s Central Bank in a statement to Iqtissadiah news entity stated that were making efforts to support innovation by looking at various technologies including CBDCs mostly built on DLT and Blockchain platforms.

Then in 2022 Price Water house Coopers published their 2022 Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Index and stablecoin overview. In the PWC report when showcasing the progress of Central Banks in terms of wholesale CBDC front, both the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were among the top 10 globally.

As conclusion the recent appointment showcases the commitment the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia has towards not only CBDC but virtual currencies as well. We will just have to wait and see!

UAE Central Bank officials call for CBDC regulatory framework after successful Completion of MBridge CBDC pilot

UAE Central Bank officials call for CBDC regulatory framework after successful Completion of MBridge CBDC pilot

UAE Central Bank officials have called for a comprehensive regulatory framework for central digital currencies that would facilitate, accelerate and reduce the cost of cross border monetary operations. The call came during UAE’s Central Bank participation at the fifth International Financial Architecture (IFA) Working Group meeting within the G20 Finance Track for 2022, which was held in a hybrid format on 22nd and 23rd September 2022.

Thiscomes after The Innovation Hub of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, BIS (Bank of International Settlements) and the Central Bank of the UAE announced on twitter the completion of the first CBDC pilot involving real value transactions and four jurisdictions, using mBridge, custom developed DLT platform.

As per the tweet, 20 banks participated in the final CBDC pilot, with over 160 transfers and FX exchanges carried out, totaling $171 million HK dollars ( $22 million)  in transfers and FX exchanges and $91 HK million in issuances equivalent to ( $12 million) .”

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) participated in “mBridge” project with partners from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Innovation Hub Centre in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Bank of Thailand (BoT), and the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).

In 2021, the Central Bank UAE completed the first pilot phase of mBridge with the participation of five banks located in the UAE including First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank, in  fifteen cases. International trade settlement was prioritized in the identified business test cases given the high volume of trade between the four jurisdictions, amounting to US$731 billion.

At the time of the press communications in 2021 it stated, “The project has now identified and will start to put through, business test cases based on historical transactions to test the recently-developed mBridge Trial Platform. In addition, a roadmap for the mBridge project’s target achievements in 2022 has been established, using an iterative and agile process to develop a minimally viable product that could support the full process of international trade settlement and other use cases.”

Asma Al Zarooni, Head of Exchange of Tax Information Section at the Ministry of Finance, and Khalifa Al Faheem, Director Monetary Operations at Central Bank of the UAE, who, participated at the Fifth International Financial Architecture (IFA) Working Group meeting within the G20 Finance Track for 2022, called for a comprehensive regulatory framework for central digital currencies that would facilitate, accelerate and reduce the cost of cross border monetary operations, and also previewed UAE’s experience in the mBridge project for building multi central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Attendees also discussed central bank digital currencies for cross-border payment and implication on the international monetary system and capital flows.

A detailed progress report will be released in October 2022, which will cover the technical design, legal, policy, regulatory considerations and future roadmap, during the Hong Kong Fintech Week October 31st- November 4th. 

Prior to that UAE Central Bank and Saudi Central Bank ( SAMA) had worked on the wholesale CBDC project called ABER.