Dubai has been making rapid strides as a leading digital asset hub. Recently, one of its home-grown luxury real estate development firms, DAMAC Properties, has completed cryptocurrency deals worth $50 million, since the start of 2022, its chief operating officer Ali Sajwani revealed.
Speaking in an interview, the COO said by accepting either Bitcoin [BTC] or Ethereum [ETH] as payment, DAMAC has shown the extent to which the firm will go in order for it to “benefit from the most advanced technology solutions.”
The COO was also asked about the payment mechanism that would be used to strike the real estate deals. He then stated that a trusted intermediary had been chosen to facilitate the transactions.
The payment process is made through a trusted financial intermediary approved by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the ‘Heaven’ company, where the customer pays the value of the property in bitcoin or Ethereum, as they are among the most traded digital currencies in terms of safety and trust, and then the financial intermediary transfers the amount to our digital wallet in dirhams or dollars.
Sajwani added that his firm’s usage of a trusted financial intermediary means DAMAC Properties will be able to eliminate the price fluctuation risk.
Dubai -the honeypot for crypto biggies
Dubai’s top financial regulator- The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority [VARA] has granted CryptoCom provisional approval to set shop in the UAE’s most populous city, a few days back.
In another bullish move recently, a Dubai hotel, The Manor Hotel in partnership with Binance has added crypto payments which guests can use Binance coin [BNB], Bitcoin [BTC], or Ethereum [ETH] to pay for the hotel fare.
The hotel has incorporated the payment gateway which is managed by Binance to enable these asset payments.
Not only that, the emirate has become an attractive destination for many crypto bigwigs such as Bybit and crypto.com have moved their base to the region.
Industry veteran crypto hedge fund firm Three Arrows Capital in April also pledged to move its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai. Co-founder Su Zhu cited “electric energy” in Dubai’s digital asset industry at the time.