Blockchain.com CEO Studies Investing Heavily in Dubai

Co-Founder and CEO at Blockchain.com Peter Smith said his company studies expanding its Middle East office in Dubai in light of its intention to intensively invest in the emirate.

Smith’s remarks came during his participation in the 2023 Qatar Economic Forum, organized by Bloomberg, according to Cointelegraph. Smith pointed out that the Dubai government creates a friendly environment for the crypto industry through its regulations.

The Dubai government is in a very healthy consultative process with the industry on regulations, the co-founder of Blockchain.com said, pointing out that he thinks the company will probably invest heavily in Dubai as long as it ends up in the right place.

In September 2022, Blockchain.com obtained temporary approval to operate in Dubai by its Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). Since then, the company has opened an office and recruited many employees.

According to him, the company is also investing heavily to support its operations in Singapore and Europe.

As for the debt ceiling crisis in the US, Smith noted that the US government default could lead to an initial decline in the value of cryptocurrencies in the short term, adding the US debt default, or a potential US recession, could be negative for cryptocurrencies on the short term but this initial decline may be followed by a strong rally in the cryptocurrency market.

He also expected that the cryptocurrencies’ value would go up in 2024.

Earlier, during the Dubai Fintech Summit, prominent crypto leaders praised the UAE digital infrastructure as ideal for the prosperity of the crypto industry.

Co-founder of venture-building firm Crypto Oasis Saqr Ereiqat said the UAE took over the US position in the crypto industry as it followed a more proactive approach to regulating crypto, attributing the ideal environment for the crypto in the UAE to digital and regulatory infrastructure and its ability to attract a global pool of talent.