Dubai's visionary Museum of the Future provided a fitting backdrop as we announced the official launch of our VARA (Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority)-licensed crypto exchange in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on October 10, 2024. Not just another pin in our map of licensed locations globally, this milestone marks something much bigger — a new alternative to traditional finance for Dubai.
Such a moment deserved a worthy celebration, and we delivered it by gazing into the future of crypto and OKX in the UAE and beyond. The event brought together major players from crypto, politics, and sports, with discussions ranging from how our industry builds for a connected onchain world to the UAE's position at the forefront of crypto innovation. As such, the event provided a glimpse at what's to come from OKX Middle East Fintech FZE in Dubai — tireless progress, transformative ideas, and relentless enthusiasm.
Here, we outline some of the major talking points from our Dubai launch event.
There’s a lot of love for Dubai as a crypto hub
The spotlight was understandably on Dubai as a leading global crypto hub. Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni, CEO of the Dubai Blockchain Center, explained how the Dubai Economic Agenda 2023 has “set the city’s pace” and continues to attract the talent necessary to achieve Dubai’s crypto goals.
His comments were echoed by Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, who emphasized the sophistication of the regulatory structure evident in Dubai. Alongside him was Jeff Ren, Partner of OKX Ventures and CEO of OKLink, who highlighted the positive impact of formal regulation, stating that “the clarity, transparency, and stability this provides for the whole industry sets the stage for folks from all over the world.”
Meanwhile OKX’s General Manager in the MENA region, Rifad Mahasneh, noted the strength of Dubai’s retail and institutional trading audience, thanks in part to the emirate’s status as a regional financial hub. Mahasneh also pointed to the breadth of Dubai’s ecosystem, which brings together exchanges, brokers, insurance providers, and custodians, as another reason for Dubai’s appeal as a crypto hub.
“In the next 15 years, this will be one of the big crypto and financial centres. Everybody in crypto will eventually have an office here — that’s my prediction” — Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner, SkyBridge Capital
If crypto's a new alternative, OKX is the vehicle
There was also much discussion around OKX’s influence in the Dubai market and future plans. As Mahasneh noted, we’re now the first global crypto company in UAE to offer AED banking rails for our retail and institutional customers.
Speaking early in the evening, our Founder and CEO, Star Xu, promised fresh innovation for both our retail and institutional clients. That includes collaboration with global tier one banks and asset management companies for a tri-party model that opens up new opportunities for companies to gain crypto exposure.
Speaking later in the evening, our CMO, Haider Rafique, shared the evolution of OKX over the past three years, from an exchange processing billions in trading volume to a super app. Our products and the reliability of our platform have helped OKX to become the trusted choice for more than 60 million people and 100s of large institutions seeking access to crypto markets.
“We have a commitment to Dubai. We’ve established a headquarters here, and we’ll continue to invest by growing our team of talent.” — Star Xu, Founder and CEO, OKX
“The sector has been questioned, criticized — it’s seen adversity and failures. Yet during this volatility, we’ve found a way to keep our head down, and focus on innovating and always doing the right thing.” — Haider Rafique, CMO, OKX
The rumbles of onchain disruption are getting louder
The evening moved from our announcement and Dubai’s opportunity to look broadly at how the industry is shaping up onchain. Our President, Hong Fang, was joined by OKX Ireland CEO David Renold and Andrew Crawford, VP of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, to discuss the bridge between onchain and traditional finance (TradFi). Crawford sees the transition of wealth management and the delivery of necessary tools to investors as two key challenges. Meanwhile, Fang noted how the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the growing prevelance of stablecoins for cross-border payments demonstrates that TradFi’s move onchain has already begun.
Complementing these points, Renold explained how emerging compliance infrastructure globally is accelerating the connection between crypto and TradFi. More formalized regulation has eased banks’ concerns about opening their services up to exchanges. Meanwhile, banking customers are also demanding greater involvement from their lenders in the crypto sector, which has helped exchanges like OKX to set up fiat on and offramps.We also saw Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder of Polygon Labs, join Muneeb Ali, Co-creator of Stacks, to explore improvements to onchain interoperability and scalability. According to Ali, further developments to Layer-2 solutions are needed, particularly for Bitcoin given the limitations of the network. Meanwhile, Nailwal believes that onchain interoperability is coming into sharper focus, with tools like Polygon evolving to work with other Layer-2 solutions to smooth users’ movements across chains.
“We believe a decentralized system is the future. It’s important we as an industry and OKX continue to invest in this infrastructure — to build for the future in line with VARA and the UAE’s sentiment for tech investment.” — Hong Fang, President, OKX
Crypto's future is paved by regulation
Regulation was, understandably, another key talking point. Our Chief Legal Officer, Mauricio Beugelmans, took to the stage to explain how visionary the early laws underpinning the establishment of VARA were — setting the path for OKX’s eventual entry into the market.What’s more, OKX CEO Star Xu had earlier explained how crypto’s focus on building a robust compliance program has led some companies in our space to now meet a higher standard of compliance than those in the banking industry. One example is the role of Proof of Reserves (PoR) audits, which exchanges use to show that their capital holdings match their customers’ deposits one-to-one. OKX will launch a localized version of its PoR solution in Dubai, bringing greater transparency to our users and partners.
“When we go to different markets like Dubai, we implement the local requirements 100%. Dubai’s regulator granting us a virtual asset license shows a great trust in the OKX team.” — Star Xu, Founder and CEO, OKX
Success isn’t possible alone
Amongst the debate and discussion, attendees were reminded that leadership in any form and any industry is rarely achieved alone. Our CMO, Haider Rafique, was joined on stage by the evening’s special guest, Manchester City Football Club Manager Pep Guardiola, to discuss, OKX’s partnership with the reigning Premier League champions, his world-beating management style, and what’s next for the club.
"Move on. Move forward, one step in front of the other. And sometimes, make a decision from your knowledge, from your gut. It’s not much more complicated than that." — Pep Guardiola, Manager, Manchester City Football Club
Guests were also treated to a pre-recorded message from another of OKX’s sponsorship partners, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing. Brown, whose team is hard at work chasing down the Formula 1 Constructor and World Driver’s championships, highlighted the similarities between the worlds of crypto and racing.
“I regularly speak with Haider Rafique about how their world is so similar to ours — constantly having to evolve and push the limits to engage audiences new and old.” — Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing.
The final word
The official launch of OKX Middle East Fintech FZE in Dubai is about much more than our latest license. It's about providing a new alternative for Dubai. That’s true for residents of the emirate who are planning their financial future as well as for inventive developers demanding the best tools to build with. As we mark a new beginning in the UAE, we’re eager to contribute to Dubai’s continued emergence as a regional crypto hub through our spot, convert, express buy and sell, and onchain earn products.
Disclaimer
This content is not an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold Virtual assets. Virtual assets are subject to extreme market volatility, involve a high degree of risk, and can lose value, in part or in full. Investing in Virtual Assets may lead to you losing your entire investment. Virtual assets are not insured and lack legal protection against potential losses and are not protected by any form of financial protection whatsoever. Avoid making investment decisions driven solely by urgency. OKX Middle East Fintech FZE is licensed by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority to provide VA Exchange Services, VA Management and Investment Services and VA Lending and Borrowing Services. OKX Middle East Fintech FZE operates under VASP Reference: VL/23/12/003.
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