Abu Dhabi Creates Blockchain Association For MEA And Africa
A new blockchain organization has been created with the support of industry heavyweights in the Middle East, including representatives from Binance, Crypto.com, and the region’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
Within Abu Dhabi’s free economic zone, a new blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused organization have been established to advance the growth of blockchain and crypto ecosystems throughout the Middle Eastern, North African, and Asian areas.
The Middle East, Africa & Asia Crypto & Blockchain Association (MEAACBA) was formally inaugurated on November 8 at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a free economic zone in the city’s central business district with its own civil and commercial rules. The zone was created to promote the expansion of fintech businesses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to its website, the non-profit group will promote regulatory solutions, generate commercial possibilities, and engage in education to encourage industrial development.
The group will be led by board chairman Jehanzeb Awan, the founder of a Dubai-based international risk and compliance consulting business.
Richard Teng, Binance’s regional head of Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Stuart Isted, Crypto.com’s GM of Middle East and Africa, and Ola Doudin, the CEO of BitOasis, a cryptocurrency exchange in the area, all endorse the organization.
Awan said that he expects the group would implement a collaborative and community-based strategy to promote industrial development in the MENA region and “create wide-reaching benefits for this highly dynamic and exciting space.”
“The industry will benefit from the Association as it provides a coordination mechanism between regulators, government agencies, banks, legal, tax, and advisory firms to address the most pressing challenges,” he added.
ADGM’s Chairman Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi also remarked that the advent of MEAACBA will make the region’s “finance sector” much more “advanced.”
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), the financial regulator of ADGM’s free economic zone, announced in September a set of “Guiding Principles” outlining its strategy for navigating the regulatory challenges introduced by the digital asset market.
The principles are deemed “crypto-friendly” while yet adhering to the United Nations tough international regulations on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CFT).
According to a recent report, the MENA area has the fastest-growing cryptocurrency sector in the world. During the period between July 2021 and June 2022, transaction volume in MENA surpassed $566 billion, a 48 percent rise over the preceding 12 months.
In many of these developing regions, cryptocurrencies are used to save funds and make remittance payments to combat the consequences of inflation in very unstable economies.
