Global banking giant HSBC has announced that it has been successfully onboarded to the regional Know-Your-Customer (KYC)-focused private blockchain backed by Dubai’s government. HSBC is the first overseas, and fourth founding member, to go live on the “UAE KYC Blockchain Platform,” which was developed by the Dubai-based Department of Economic Development, dubbed “Dubai Economy.” The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform is a national ecosystem for the exchange of verified know-your-customer data between licensing authorities and financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates. According to the Gulf News, HSBC’s addition to the platform provides investors with the option of digitally opening an …

Canada’s largest digital asset investment fund manager, 3iQ, is expanding its reach to global investors by listing its public Bitcoin (BTC) fund on a major market in the Middle East. 3iQ rolled out its Bitcoin Fund (QBTC) for trading on Nasdaq Dubai, according to an official statement by the exchange. Trading went live on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Dubai time. The new listing marks the emergence of Middle East’s first indexed digital asset-based fund, 3iQ chairman and CEO Frederick Pye previously said. Pye was optimistic about BTC price, predicting a new all-time high in 2021: “I believe that, whether it …

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre — a free trade zone established by the Dubai Government — has signed a sale and purchase agreement with REIT Development to construct a 100,000 square foot precious metals refinery. According to a DMCC release on Wednesday, the precious metal refinery and storage facility will be the largest in the Gulf Cooperation Council and will reportedly be powered by blockchain technology. Located in the high brow Jumeirah Lake Towers area, the facility will refine and store precious metals like gold, silver, rhodium, palladium and platinum among others. These precious metals will also provide backing for asset-collateralized …

The government of the United Arab Emirates will employ blockchain technology for use in its judicial notarization and authentication services, it announced on Monday, according to the Emirates News Agency. The adoption of blockchain tech is expected to cut down on the time, effort and expenditure spent by the UAE’s Ministry of Justice in authenticating and verifying contracts and documentation, while building on the government’s plan to transfer half of its transactions onto the blockchain by the end of this year. The UAE’s deployment of blockchain technology forms part of its plans to create a remote digital framework for all …

Dubai’s Department of Economic Development, or “Dubai Economy,” and the Dubai International Financial Centre are working to expand their Know Your Customer platform to financial institutions across the United Arab Emirates. The DIFC made the planned project expansion known via an announcement published on its website on April 6. According to the communique, both organizations have signed an agreement to put the necessary modalities in place to extend the KYC platform across the UAE. The project was first announced back in February 2020, with 120 companies onboarded as of July 2020, according to a Cointelegraph report at the time. The …

At a panel for the World Economic Forum’s Global Technology Governance Summit today, United Arab Emirates minister of economy Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri said that cryptocurrency and asset tokenization will be key to the country’s plans to double its economy — currently estimated to be the 34th-largest in the world — in 10 years. Al Marri was joined on the panel, titled the “Arrival of the token economy, from art to real estate,” by artist Harry Yeff and WEF executive Sheila Warren. While much of the conversation centered on the current nonfungible toke craze, Al Marri’s comments centered largely …

It is no secret that the United Arab Emirates, along with Switzerland, Singapore and several other countries, is one of the most forward-looking tech nations in the world, with the Middle Eastern powerhouse promoting the use of blockchain in almost every sector imaginable, from energy to shipping to media. To help the country with its adoption efforts, the UAE government has launched two extensive, well-crafted initiatives — i.e., the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 and Dubai Blockchain Strategy. While the former seeks to spread the use of blockchain tech for facilitating over 50% of all government transactions by 2021, the latter …

The United Arab Emirates is the world’s sixth-largest oil producer and one of the richest countries in the world, with a gross domestic product per capita of above $43,000 as of 2019, according to the World Bank. As per its “Vision 2021,” Iis petroleum- and natural-gas-reliant economy is committed to sustainable development in order to emerge as the Gulf Cooperation Council’s, or GCC’s, most diversified economy. This includes the digitization of the economy, which has become a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. Related: Not like before: Digital currencies debut amid COVID-19 A green economy for sustainable digitization The first virtual …

For a long time, the United Arab Emirates has been one of the most progressive crypto countries in the world. For example, government-owned licensing firm Kiklabb allows clients to pay for their visa and trade license fees via various digital assets to the Dubai Financial Services Authority, which announced its decision to work on a holistic crypto regulatory framework as part of its 2021 business plan. In fact, as a result of Dubai’s crypto-friendly policies, Ripple, a firm that has recently been in murky waters with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, announced its decision to open an office …

Several major banks across Asia have joined forces to construct a cross-border central bank digital currency, according to a joint announcement issued on Feb. 23. Dubbed the Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge, or m-CBDC, the project sees the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates and the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China combine to create a CBDC prototype using distributed ledger technology. Building upon the “Inthanon-LionRock” research project started in 2019, the latest phase of the exploration into CBDCs will develop a proof-of-concept to “facilitate real-time …

According to a report by Arab News on Tuesday, clients of Dubai government-owned licensing firm Kiklabb can now pay for visa fees and trade licenses via cryptocurrencies. The supported crypto payment options are Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT). Commenting on the move, Kiklabb CEO Tasawar Ulhaq said that the decision was in line with the growing appeal of crypto payments in the fintech arena, adding: “It really was just a matter of time before we recognized Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether. Cryptocurrencies are the payment method of the future.” Adopting cryptocurrency payment options is part of Kiklabb's plan of …

CoinMENA, a soon-to-launch cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Bahrain, has obtained a license from the Central Bank of Bahrain, or CBB. The newly acquired “Crypto Assets Services Company License” allows CoinMENA to operate fully as a regulated crypto exchange and onshore platform, the company announced on Sunday. The CBB’s license ensures that CoinMENA meets all of the operational, technical and security requirements set by the central bank. As CoinMENA plans to roll out its services in the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, countries — including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman — CoinMENA is also …