DUBAI, UAE — The Middle East & North Africa (MENA) boasts the sixth-largest crypto economy globally, with an estimated $389.8 billion in on-chain value received between July 2022 and June 2023.
In recent years, the UAE has taken several steps to foster a friendly environment for crypto businesses and investors. The nation’s dedication to regulatory clarity has positioned it as a top destination for global crypto businesses and investors.
A recent report by Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, revealed that between July 2022 and June 2023, a significant 67 percent of cryptocurrency transactions in the UAE were for institutional investments valued over $1 million. This was followed by transfers for professional investments ranging from $10,000 to $1 million. Retail investments up to $10,000 made up a mere 4.63 percent of transfers in the country.
Furthermore, in the MENA region, the UAE stood out as one of the few countries with a higher share of crypto activity on decentralized exchanges (48 percent) than on centralized ones (46 percent).
Over the research period, the UAE received over $34.9 billion in crypto value. Although this marked a 17 percent decrease from the previous year, the UAE’s crypto market outperformed many regional counterparts, including Qatar (26 percent decline), Oman (49 percent decline), Jordan (55 percent decline), and Lebanon (96 percent decline).
The UAE’s pronounced interest in DeFi, representing blockchain technology’s forefront, further underscores the nation’s success in implementing innovation-friendly regulatory frameworks. These frameworks allow pioneering crypto platforms to evolve with oversight that ensures consumer safety.
Interestingly, Saudi Arabia, where cryptocurrencies have a ‘quasi-legal’ status, witnessed the most significant crypto economy growth this past year, with a year-over-year transaction volume increase of 12 percent. In fact, Saudi Arabia was among only six countries to experience any year-over-year transaction volume growth during the studied period.
Chainalysis’s report also integrated on-chain and real-world data to gauge which countries are at the forefront of grassroots crypto adoption. This year, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan ranked first, sixth, and eighth, respectively, on their Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Conversely, while the buzz around NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) reached its zenith in early 2022 and has since sharply waned, web traffic visits to NFT sites in the UAE remained notably high, surpassing 4 million from July 2022 to June 2023.
This sustained NFT interest in the UAE provides businesses a chance to evolve beyond the initial excitement and begin introducing practical use cases rooted in this technology.
NFTs hold the promise of enhancing consumer experiences in the UAE through their application in various areas, such as title deeds, music festival ticket sales, charitable donations, and gaming trend analysis, the report highlighted.