Leading cryptocurrency platform KoinBasket is set to enter the UAE market, with aggressive plans to expand in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, a top company executive said.
The venture is also eyeing partnerships and alliances with leading financial technology and crypto companies in the region for faster growth.
The Singapore-based KoinBasket is currently operating in the US, offering a larger bouquet of crypto products.
“We will be launching soon in the UAE,” Khaleelulla Baig founder and chief executive officer of KoinBasket, told Arabian Business.
“We also have plans to expand into the MENA and European Union (EU) regions over the next two quarters,” Baig said.
Significantly, KoinBasket’s move to zero on the UAE for its global expansion comes amid predictions of the Gulf country emerging as a global capital for the crypto industry in the next five years.
Baig said KoinBasket has drawn up ambitious plans to firmly establish itself in the MENA region “with utmost importance to regulatory and statutory compliance”.
“We will also focus on partnerships and alliances with leading fintech and crypto companies in the region,” he said.
Industry watchers said besides KoinBasket, several other crypto and NFT (non-fungible token) ventures were either in the process of finalising plans or toying with the idea of foraying into the UAE market.
Binance and Crypto.com are among the firms which have set up bases in the UAE recently, while several other firms are using Dubai as their headquarters in the MENA region.
The UAE and the wider Middle East market is also expected to see several Google-Coinbase type partnership deals between the banking, fintech web3 ventures for piloting crypto payments, which is another major reason driving blockchain and crypto ventures to the region.
Baig also revealed plans to tap investors from the MENA region, besides from the US and Asia Pacific and China (APAC) region for its next round of fundraising.
“We’ve made tremendous progress despite the crypto winter and attracted phenomenal investor interest for our next round from the VC (venture capital) community across the US, APAC and MENA region,” he said.
The KoinBasket founder, however, did not disclose the timing or quantum of capital planned to be raised in its next round of capital raising.
The venture raised seed funds in May this year from a clutch of global crypto leaders and VCs like Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, Omar Rahim, former director of Binance, Kube VC, AngelList Quant fund, Stonks Fund and CXOs from Google, Ripple, Nomura and Citibank.
The UAE has been luring digital assets and high-tech ventures to the country from around the world, mainly from Asia and Europe, with policy tools such as speedy licensing and long-term residency options for founders and employees.
The UAE authorities are said to have set their eyes on attracting about 300 firms to the country.
Thani Al Zeyoudi, minister of state for foreign trade, disclosed recently that nearly 40 companies were in the advanced stages of a possible relocation.
Follow us on
