Inside Dubai’s risky bid to become the world’s crypto hub

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In April, the leading crypto exchange Binance announced that it had received approval to operate in Dubai, the biggest and wealthiest city in the United Arab Emirates. The license was one of the first granted by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, a regulator created in 2022 by the Dubai government to supervise the growing crypto industry.

The green light was a major win for Binance, which was still rebuilding after the criminal conviction and imprisonment of its founder and former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, by the U.S. government in late 2023. It also reflected a developing strategy for the nascent regulator: attracting the world’s leading crypto companies to the Gulf emirate, even as other jurisdictions turn them away.

Interviews with Dubai’s regulators, venture investors, and entrepreneurs reveal a city that is establishing itself as a global crypto hub as the industry finds itself at a crossroads, with Dubai boasting a higher risk tolerance than its counterparts in the U.S. and Europe.

As other non-Western cities, from Singapore to Hong Kong, compete to attract blockchain businesses, Dubai hopes that its combination of clear regulations, ample capital, and unique “free zone” structure will set it apart from other competitors. As other governments like the Bahamas discovered with FTX, however, the downsides of inviting the often unruly crypto sector to set up shop can often outweigh the benefits.

The emirate has taken a novel approach to overseeing crypto by carving out a space for it within a special economic zone called the Dubai International Financial Centre, established in 2004 to attract foreign companies from banks to tech giants to set up operations in the budding economy. DIFC has its own court system and financial regulator, the Dubai Financial Services Authority, which began laying out plans to oversee crypto businesses in 2021. To date, DFSA has granted licenses to around 10 crypto firms, including Ripple.

As lawmakers in the U.S. continue to squabble over legislation, Dubai has signaled to the crypto industry that it is open for business, even if the embrace comes with growing pains.

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