UAE set to become a global hub for NFTs and crypto

The United Arab Emirates has long been considered a desirable destination for doing business. Now, the Gulf nation appears poised to become a global hub in the burgeoning — but controversial — field of cryptocurrency. As more and more countries seek to ban or impose strict regulatory measures on cryptocurrency, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, the Chinese company Binance, is going all-in on the UAE. At the same time, a surge in the buying, selling and creation of digital assets called NFTs — or Non-Fungible Tokens — is also taking place in the UAE.

“The good news about the UAE is that they are welcoming this new technology versus places like America and China — America’s and China’s loss is the UAE’s gain,” Jamil Abu-Wardeh, director and co-founder of METKAF.com, a crypto learn-and-launch company in the UAE, told The Circuit. “The UAE has realized that you need to have the right people and technology in place to make this something you can monitor.”

At the end of December 2021, Binance struck an agreement with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTCA), which is in the process of establishing an international virtual asset ecosystem. With the deal, Binance became one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to join DWTCA’s new crypto center, which according to bitcoin.com, is set out to become a “comprehensive ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and providers of related services.” In its announcement, Binance said “it believes that Dubai’s new agenda will contribute to the growth of the global economy” and that through the agreement it would help advance “Dubai’s commitment to establishing a new international Virtual Asset ecosystem that will generate long-term economic growth through digital innovation.” 

Binance founder and chief executive Changpeng Zhao, photographed on July 12, 2021. (Singapore Press via AP Images)

On Dec. 21, 2021, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, tweeted just one word — “Dubai” — after the company had signed the agreement with DWTCA. With a new worth of $96 billion, Zhao — also known as CZ — rivals tech titans such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Larry Page, and is banking a lot on Dubai.

In November, Zhao bought his first home in Dubai in a show of support for a city he has described as “very pro crypto.” In December, Bloomberg reported that Binance was in talks with Dubai and Abu Dhabi with officials from the special economic zones Abu Dhabi Global Market, Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Multi Commodities Centre about its plans in the Gulf nation. 

A potential Binance headquarters in Dubai signals much about the booming crypto scene in Dubai, especially as it continues to face global regulatory pressure. Founded in China in 2017, Binance is striving to establish itself as a regulated and mature finance institution. Despite recent crackdowns by regulators across the globe, trading volumes at Binance soared between July and August, suggesting that it had little impact on the platform’s business.

While many countries have moved to ban the use of Bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets, UAE regulators have taken a different approach by pushing forward its vision to become a blockchain capital via specific frameworks designed to guide crypto businesses on how to operate within the Gulf nation’s laws.

“Binance controls 70 percent of crypto transactions, and the fact that it is being headquartered in the UAE is further proof of how the UAE is becoming a capital for crypto and digital assets,” said Abu-Wardeh.

As interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies grows globally, it is increasing exponentially in the UAE as the global economy shifts to include less traditional modes of money transactions, such as digital wallets, that can hold both fiat currency and cryptocurrency. 

In May 2021, the DMCC Crypto Centre launched to promote cryptographic and blockchain technologies in Dubai. It is now home to over 100 organizations operating in the crypto space, with a further 900 having applied for licenses. There are more than 400 crypto businesses now operating in the UAE. 

Within the UAE’s welcome arms to crypto, a surge in the buying, selling and creation of NFTs is also taking place. NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. However, unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency because they are unique representations of real-world assets.

NFTs exploded onto the art scene in February 2021, when artist Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold his first NFT artwork at Christie’s auction for $69.4 million.

In November 2021, the percentage of people who own a non-fungible token (NFT) in the UAE was more than double the global average, according to a survey of 28,000 people conducted by finder.com.

According to the survey, which polled 1,004 people in the country, 23 percent of people in the UAE own at least one NFT. The average rate of NFT ownership around the world was found to be 11.7 percent. The UAE is ranked fourth-highest on the list, behind the Philippines (32 percent), Thailand (27 percent), and Malaysia (24 percent). After the UAE, Vietnam had 17 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, Japan had the smallest at two percent, followed by the U.K. and the U.S. with three percent, Germany at four percent, Australia and Canada at five percent. 

“I feel like the new generation coming out of school feels like they can’t play in the normal industries: banking, legal,” Liontree founder and CEO Aryeh Bourkoff said on a recent episode of Boardroom’s “Out of Office” podcast. “ Like, what’s the point of going through the normal school system? What’s the point of going through the normal banking programs, going into the stock market? Ten percent of people own 90% of stocks. And they’re thinking, what’s the point of entering a race that’s already been won? That is informing the mindset of creating NFTs: a new asset class; crypto: a new currency; Metaverse: a new internet world. It’s not just innovation, it’s creating new worlds.”

For the UAE’s 50th birthday celebrations last month, the country’s postal operator issued NFT stamps to celebrate the federation’s National Day.

Dubai Culture has also ventured into NFT art with its latest exhibition — a collaboration with NFT curatorial platform MORROW, which opened on Jan. 15 at the Al Safa Art and Design Library. Titled “50/50” to mark the UAE’s 50th anniversary, the exhibition includes works by Gigi Gorlova, Khalid Al Banna, Alia Al Gaoud, Dalal Ahmed and Marwan Shakarchi. 

“We founded MORROW in March 2021,” said co-founder and artist Jen Stelco, who was introduced to NFTs last year. “Just under a year ago, gallerists and traditional artists were hearing a little bit about NFTs, and it was scary.”

At the time, it seemed an individual had to either be a traditionalist or into NFTs — you couldn’t be both. It also seemed like there was no room for art galleries in the NFT sphere, as NFT artists upload their work onto virtual platforms, leaving no need for it to be exhibited physically. 

“Galleries were not on board with NFTs, but we love galleries, so we sought to find a way to bring galleries into NFTs by building a platform that is for galleries,” explains Stelco. 

Stelco and her co-founder Anna Seaman co-curated their first NFT exhibition for the digital art marketplace SuperRare in February 2021 called “Orchestra of Crickets.” 

“This was arguably the birth of the MORROW idea,” added Stelco. “It worked, and so we decided to go ahead.”

Also jumping on the digital art-cum-NFT bandwagon is Art Dubai. For the art fair’s upcoming 15th edition in March, it launched a new digital art section examining the context from which NFTs, cryptocurrency, video art, and virtual reality developed since the beginnings of digital art in the 1980s. 

“There is a thriving crypto scene in the UAE,” said Chris Fussner, curator of the new section and a web3 specialist and director of Tropical Futures Institute, a leading design strategy studio in Cebu, Philippines. that elevates early stage artists and web3 tech startups. “The main reason is mostly due to macro forces. By being so agile with their policy, especially in today’s world, the UAE government has looked at web3, blockchain and crypto as a good bet for taking on the future. Dubai is a forward-facing city and it has to look towards the future in order to remain competitive in today’s global landscape.”

An exhibition view of “50/50” by MORROW Collective at Al Safa Art and Design Library in Dubai, UAE. (Photo: Jen Stelco) 

Art Dubai’s new section will include a dedicated gallery section featuring international platforms working with NFTs as well as those that have been working with digital art since the 1980s. It will also include a space introducing visitors to the main players in the digital world, with explanations of where to buy bitcoin and trade in crypto, among other activities.

The latest and perhaps most symbolic representation of the UAE’s NFT boom comes in the form of the historic Pontifex carpet woven by Afghan women and gifted by Sheikh Mohamad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to Pope Francis in September 2016 during a visit to the Vatican. The two leaders met to discuss the strengthening of existing diplomatic ties and the promotion of inter-religious harmony and tolerance. The Fatima Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative (FMBI) has replicated the physical version of the carpet to be gifted to whomever buys it as an NFT. 

It was sold on Jan. 14 for 300,000dhs ($82,000 USD). The MORROW collective helped create the NFT in collaboration with Zuleya, and sold the NFT through the NFTone platform.

The new owner will receive the physical replica of the carpet and an ornate gold frame on a 165-centimeter digital canvas with the NFT loaded onto it. The money will go to aid vulnerable families in Afghanistan. The charity sale of the carpet is in itself an expression of the UAE’s new digital landscape — as well as its aims for interreligious and inter-cultural tolerance.

Meet the best friends introducing Middle Eastern date syrup to the wider world

As teenagers, David Czinn and Brian Finkel joked that they would go into business together one day. Little did they expect that their pipe dream would become reality, or that their fledgling business — based on an ancient biblical fruit, and with one foot in the very modern startup nation — would grow into a formidable international operation with private backing and products sold in 7,000 stores across the U.S.

D’vash Organics — whose name comes from the word in the Torah used for honey, which in biblical times referred to date honey — specializes in date syrup and date energy bars. Czinn and Finkel serve as president and CEO, respectively, of D’vash, which currently sells goods in the U.S. and South Korea, with plans to expand to Canada. 

Although D’vash is based in California and Czinn resides in Los Angeles, Finkel has lived in Israel since 2013 and works remotely overseas, traversing a 10-hour time difference to communicate with his partner.

With executives on two continents, D’vash lives the premise that it will unite different groups of people. Two Jews from the Midwest working with partners in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, with a business team based in the Philippines, sell their Middle Eastern-influenced products around the world. For Czinn, D’vash bears the legacy of his grandmother’s love of feeding people and the commitment of his parents’ — who are doctors — to a healthy lifestyle.

“I think there’s something very special with food,” Czinn told Jewish Insider. “It bridges a lot of gaps… there’s nothing better than when you sit down at a table and you break bread together. If there’s a good meal, I think it can solve all the problems… [because] you get people comfortable with one another,” explained Czinn.

Czinn and Finkel met at Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, a gap-year program in Jerusalem, where they bonded over food, and experienced what Finkel called “one of the most formative years of my life.” 

From there, the two friends progressed to separate colleges, Czinn heading to the University of Maryland to study business and Finkel heading to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business to study economics and finance. Although they attended separate universities, Czinn and Finkel frequently saw each other, commuting by train for monthly visits.

The origins of D’vash Organics lie in an innocuous phone call — like the numerous phone calls Czinn and Finkel enjoyed as friends — when Finkel described date syrup’s ubiquity in Israel.

“One day… I realized I was eating Silan date syrup all the time. And I kind of just had this epiphany. And I called David, who had been in the food industry already for a number of years, and I said, ‘Hey, what do you think about date syrup?’”

Czinn was confident that date syrup could take off in the U.S. He had initially broken into the food industry when he noticed the health-conscious food culture in L.A. and detected a market for an organic fruit snack company, which he then co-founded with his cousin, called Fruigees. Czinn now saw demand for a cheaper, healthier alternative to honey, and date syrup fit the bill.

The two friends were intrigued about bringing date syrup to an American audience, and the timing was perfect: Finkel was between jobs and Czinn had just enjoyed success with Fruigees. Overcoming the skepticism of friends and family, Czinn and Finkel took the plunge and created D’vash.

D’vash is dedicated to providing a product that is healthy — both for people and the environment. Their syrup is cheaper, more sustainable and contains 25% less sugar than honey; it is also vegan and does not include high-fructose corn syrup. Because pediatricians and parents are concerned about children consuming large amounts of protein, D’vash addresses that worry by manufacturing energy bars without high protein content.

When it was a new company, D’vash endured many rejections before eventually securing vital contracts with sellers and distributors. 

“Brian showed me all of the aisles filled with date syrup in the Middle East. We really believed that we had what hummus was 10 years ago, prior to Sabra being acquired by Pepsi,” explained Czinn.

“When you think of ketchup, you think of Heinz; when you think of pop, you think of Coca-Cola; [when you think of] tissues, [you think of] Kleenex. All these iconic brands are identified with the product that they make, and are basically synonymous with that product… When people think of dates or anything date-related… we want people to think of D’vash,” said Finkel.

With products already sold in three countries, and contracts with major American stores including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Costco and CVS, D’vash has expanded to the skies in a new partnership with Cathay Pacific Airlines, announced last month. The Hong Kong-based airline will provide D’vash’s energy bars as refreshments on their flights.

D’vash’s success illustrates the broader shifting political climate in the Middle East, and highlights the bridgeable gaps among divided groups. In the company’s early days, D’vash relied on dates grown in the Coachella Valley in California, but as the business expanded, Czinn and Finkel needed a larger date supplier, and stumbled upon the United Arab Emirates-based Al Barakah Dates Factory.

“When we started to reach out to alternative suppliers, we did a deep dive — it was probably a Google search — and we reached out to Al Barakah,” recounted Czinn. Although the date company was initially skeptical, its officials were quickly impressed as D’vash’s orders grew in size and frequency, and were eager to enter a formal partnership with Czinn and Finkel.

Although Al Barakah did not know that D’vash’s founders were Jewish, nor that one is Israeli, they coincidentally floated a potential partnership the same week the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the UAE, were announced. By the time Finkel flew to Dubai to meet with his Emirati associates, direct flights had opened between Israel and Dubai, creating a quick option to conduct business.

For Czinn, the Abraham Accords “really made me believe that this entire thing was fate.” It also meant business with the UAE was easier and cheaper because Finkel was a short plane flight away.

While visiting Dubai to formalize their cooperation, Finkel and his wife went out to dinner at Armani Kaf, Dubai’s first kosher restaurant, with his Al Barakah counterpart and his wife. When Finkel mentioned that he lived in Israel, his new business partner reacted positively and explained that he had long conducted business with Israel using unmarked containers traveling through Jordan; the new peace treaty smoothened his business dealings.

“Now that we’re vertically integrated… we can remain nimble, and build what the market desires, and so whatever the market dictates in terms of what type of products people are looking for, we have all the ingredients necessary in order to create the right products,” said Czinn reflecting on the benefits conferred by partnering with Al Barakah dates.

For the two founders, the learning curve has been steep, but filled with memorable moments. At first, in a push for product sustainability, D’vash manufactured all of its syrups in glass bottles, but ran into trouble. 

“We would get emails on a regular basis. No matter how well we would pad the product — bubble wrap it, put it into stronger, corrugated boxes — FedEx and UPS would manage to break it,” related Czinn. In response, the company pivoted to plastic bottles, acknowledging the necessity of using less-green, but more durable containers.

They also learned the power of persistence first-hand. After sending numerous emails to the buyers at Costco touting their new products without receiving a response, Czinn and Finkel emailed the company’s CEO, CFO and COO in a desperate Hail Mary. To their surprise, one of the executives forwarded the email to the company’s buyers, and the buyers responded to D’vash to negotiate a contract.

Once the Costco deal was solidified, the first shipment ran into trouble when it was blocked by a large cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal. “Never in a million years did I think a large news story would impact mine and Brian’s life,” Czinn reflected.

Although they worried Costco would be upset about the delay due to a “dog ate my homework” type of excuse, the international wholesale company was understanding of the delay. For Czinn and Finkel, the episode reinforced the importance of perpetual resilience.

“We’re constantly having to innovate, think outside of the box, get creative and constantly figure out ways to win,” reflected Czinn.

The duo hope to roll out more products, expand to more countries and score contracts with brands as an ingredient in other foods.

Despite the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s slowly growing presence, D’vash has not faced resentment because of Finkel’s Israeli citizenship; on the contrary, Finkel’s experiences in Israel is a chance to create awareness about the Jewish state.

“I think it’s an opportunity to educate. It’s an opportunity to have a discussion. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow from one another, and hopefully,” said Czinn, “that will help build and create more open minds.”