The United Crypto Emirates

• On the 18th of July 2022, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed Al Maktoum announced in a tweet the launch of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which aims to utilise its unique position to harness innovation.

• The Prince intends on establishing Dubai as one of the top 10 cities globally in the metaverse economy.
• The Emirati state is currently home to over 1,000 companies operating in the metaverse and blockchain sector, which collectively contribute approximately $500 million to the national economy.
• One of the strategy’s key objectives is to increase the number of blockchain and metaverse companies five-fold within the next five years.
• Should targets be met, over $4 billion will be added to the state’s economy along with around 40,000 virtual jobs.
• Dubai aims to cultivate talent for the industry through education and training to then be used to develop metaverse use-cases and applications for its government.

Dubai has been granting crypto firms licenses issued by its Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). As a result, many household crypto names have received approval in recent months, including OKX, Crypto.com, FTX and Binance, many of which will base their regional hubs in the Emirate.