Binance’s CZ headlines as crypto crowd pours into Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is hosting both the sprawling Abu Dhabi Finance Week event and the Bitcoin MENA conference, drawing crypto, finance and institutional investors to the UAE’s capital from around the world.

Headlining the Bitcoin event is Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance better known as CZ, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in October after pleading guilty to violating money laundering laws.

Also appearing are Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman & CEO of the Dubai Multi-Commodity Centre; Abdulla Al Dhaheri, CEO of The Blockchain Center; Faisal Al Hammadi, Managing Partner at Further Ventures; and Ali Alnuaimi, Founder at Shafra.

Amid the gatherings, Binance received formal approval from Abu Dhabi Global Market’s regulatory authority to provide global platform services from Abu Dhabi via three licensed entities – an exchange, a clearing house, and a broker-dealer. Under the arrangement, Binance’s regulated operations are set to begin January 5, 2026.

Missing this year is Eric Trump, who spoke to a packed hall last year before Donald Trump took office and promised that his father would be the most pro-crypto President ever. Excitement over crypto appeared not to be dampened much by the 30% slide in Bitcoin’s value.

“This year has certainly been an interesting one where we started well, went sideways, came a little bit lower and leveraged positions,” Sam North, a market analyst at eToro, told The Circuit at the conference. “But overall, I think it has been a good year.”

Trump $1.5 billion crypto gamble backfires amid spiraling Alt5

The Trump family’s $1.5 billion crypto deal with Canada’s Alt5 Sigma is going south.

Alt5 CEO Peter Tassiopoulos was suspended after the merger and the company has warned employees it may face lawsuits and regulatory probes, The Information reports.

The merger, announced in August and signed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on behalf of their company, World Liberty Financial, was meant to boost both firms through a new Trump-linked WLFI cryptocurrency.

Eric Trump earlier touted the digital coin at the TOKEN 2049 conference in Dubai before it was first generated.

Now, Alt5’s stock has fallen 75% on the Nasdaq and the WLF token has plunged by nearly half its value.

Eric Trump returns to UAE to pitch crypto at Dubai conference

Eric Trump, who drew enthusiastic hoots and hollers in Abu Dhabi last December when he told the Bitcoin MENA conference that his dad would unleash the power of cryptocurrencies, returns to the UAE this week to kick off Dubai’s TOKEN2049 summit.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s 41-year-old second son promises to deliver another rousing address at the gathering, which starts on Wednesday, as crypto fever builds with the imminent issue of the UAE’s own dirham-denominated stablecoin.

ADQ, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, together with First Abu Dhabi Bank and International Holding Co., announced on Monday that the digital currency will be fully regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE to build investor confidence and lessen the uncertainty inherent to bitcoins and other blockchain-based money. No date was given for the UAE coin’s debut.

“The launch of the stablecoin marks a pivotal step in our commitment to strengthening the UAE’s digital infrastructure ecosystem,” said Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Managing Director and Group CEO of ADQ.

“As we move forward towards an increasingly digital and connected economy, the stablecoin will provide a solution that is secure, efficient and scalable, while creating new opportunities for growth and value creation,” he said.

Alongside Trump, the two-day TOKEN2049 event will draw top names in the crypto industry, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao; OKX founder and CEO Star Xu; Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets; and Mathew McDermott, Head of Digital Assets for Goldman Sachs.

UAE crypto trading platform BitOasis sold to India’s CoinDCX

UAE virtual asset trading platform BitOasis has been bought for an undisclosed amount by India’s largest trading platform, CoinDCX.

Founded in 2016 by Ola Doudin, Tarek Kaylani and Daniel Robenek, BitOasis is MENA’s first and largest crypto asset exchange, available in 15 countries across the region for users to buy, hold and sell over 60 cryptocurrencies.

The company has processed over $6 billion in trading volume and raised more than $40 million in funding from CoinDCX and other investors including the UAE’s Wamda Capital; U.S. VC funds Jump Capitaland Pantera Capital; and Berlin-based Global Founders Capital.

CoinDCX will gain market entry into MENA with its acquisition, “capitalizing on its mature market and the population’s keen interest in crypto investment,” Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder of CoinDCX, said.

Startup exits are on the rise in the region. Forty-three were sold in 2023, up from 15 in 2015, according to funding platform Magnitt. 

Mideast trends: Wheat shortages, energy spikes, crypto

Over the coming months, investors would do well to pay attention to the impending food shortages caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, particularly the drying up of the wheat supply in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. That’s the advice from Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global Associates, a London-based consulting firm that specializes in risk management in the MENA region.

“Basically you’re talking about potential riots, with collapsing economies, collapsing politics and collapsing societies,” Nuseibeh said in an interview with The Circuit. “Bread is the main food staple. If countries run out of wheat, food becomes more expensive and people have less to eat. We haven’t reached the point of famine, but in a couple of months it could easily get there.” Nuseibeh said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that can afford the price spikes will have to subsidize Egypt’s wheat supply.

Nuseibeh, 45, was born in Jerusalem to a prominent Palestinian family whose history has been intertwined for centuries with the city revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians. He lived in the U.K. as a teenager, earned a Master’s degree in civil engineering from London’s Imperial College and spent much of the next two decades working in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf.

Among his relatives are Zaki Nusseibeh, a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed al Nahyan, the UAE’s de facto leader, and a former cabinet minister; the UAE’s ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, Zaki’s daughter; and Sari Nusseibeh, the veteran Palestinian leader and scholar. (Ghanem spells his family name with one ‘s.’)

Surveying regional trends, Nuseibeh said investors must recognize the effect that global efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels are having on oil-producing nations. Though prices have risen because of the Ukraine conflict, any strategic advantage over Western economies that Saudi Arabia may feel will gradually diminish, he said.

“What does the Gulf have to offer after the decoupling happens?” Nuseibeh said. “The Saudis realize that they are really part of the ‘western’ Middle East. Russia and China are in no way capable of replacing the relationship with the U.S. It’s a matter of just a few years before they become less strategically important to the West.”

In the financial realm, Nuseibeh said a strong regulatory environment is critical if Dubai pushes forward with its blueprint to become a global hub for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). He warned any perception that the UAE is lax in exercising financial controls will attract corrupt traders looking to cheat the system.

Apart from his business activities, Nuseibeh has taken great interest in the development of the Jewish community in Dubai and is founding chairman of London-based Muslims Against Antisemitism. He has tangled for years with Qatar since writing a report warning of the political risk associated with the Gulf state’s hosting of soccer’s 2022 World Cup. The event is set to take place in November.

Nuseibeh said addressing food insecurity and renewable energy have become key areas for cooperation between the UAE and Israel since they normalized relations in 2020. He added that both countries have worked diligently to prevent their new alliance from being derailed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which threatened to erupt again last month in East Jerusalem.

“The opportunities are there and many people are starting to look at Israel as just another country in the region,” Nuseibeh said.