Has FTX’s Collapse Changed the United Arab Emirates Crypto Ambitions? - Bloomberg

Has FTX’s Collapse Changed the United Arab Emirates Crypto Ambitions? - Bloomberg

The United Arab Emirates has spent a lot of time — and considerable resources — positioning itself as a crypto-friendly hub. Its efforts have attracted some of the top names in crypto to the region. Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ), the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, has a residence in Dubai. It’s also where Su Zhu and Kyle Davies fled to after the collapse of their crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital.

Sam Bankman-Fried traveled to Dubai for meetings with investors just weeks before the collapse of FTX. And FTX was one of the first firms granted a license by Dubai’s regulator for virtual assets. Around 4% of FTX’s global customers are based in the UAE, according to court filings in the firm’s bankruptcy case. That makes it one of the top 10 jurisdictions impacted by the FTX fallout.

Bloomberg reporters Suvashree Ghosh and Ben Bartenstein join the episode to discuss United Arab Emirates’ crypto ambitions.