Crypto investments firm 21.co listed its subsidiary 21Shares AG, as a Bitcoin exchange-traded product on Nasdaq Dubai. This makes it the Middle East’s first physically-backed bitcoin ETP.
This is the latest project launched by 21Shares. The subsidiary of 21.co has listed Bitcoin ETPs on 12 exchanges, including Nasdaq, EuroNext, BXSwiss, Quotrix, Gettex, Deutsche Börse, Börse Düsseldorf, Börse München and Börse Stuttgart.
With the addition of Nasdaq Dubai, 21Shares has listed more than 46 products across 12 exchanges in seven countries. 21Shares’s co-founder and CEO, the Egypt-born Hany Rashwan, said: “Our expansion into the UAE is a major milestone in 21Shares’ international growth plans. Coming from the Middle East myself, the region is exceptionally important to me, and, as a company, we are committed to providing regional investors with safe and secure access to cryptocurrency-backed products.
Our partners Nasdaq Dubai and Dubai Financial Market share our vision to provide investors with access to new and exciting asset classes. 21Shares will continue to support the Middle East’s ambitions to become a global crypto hub.”
Middle East and North Africa are the fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets in the world. These regions account for 9.2 percent of global digital currency transactions
Nasdaq Dubai’s world-class infrastructure, broker network, and regulatory-focused approach offers fund managers the right environment to bring their products to market. Dubai is determined to become a global cryptocurrency hub and has attracted big players in the market like Binance to set up shop.
The crypto market witnessed a downfall that forced some of the biggest players to lay off thousands of employees to cut costs. But in August, co-hired Sherif El-Haddad as its head of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Sherif said that cryptocurrencies were “fast becoming the asset of the future for investors and wealth managers around the world.”
A report by Blockchain researcher Chainalysis revealed that the Middle East and North Africa as the fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets in the world. These regions account for 9.2 percent of global digital currency transactions, between July 2021 to June 2022.
Individual investors in the Mena region received $566 billion in cryptocurrencies during this period. As per the Global Crypto Adoption Index, this indicated an annual increase of 48%.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, the Arab world’s second-largest economy accounted for 37.2 percent of total transactions and $38bn in cryptocurrency activity, according to Chainalysis data.
“The UAE, and broader GCC, is a market of significant strategic importance to our business, and we are excited about the opportunity this market opens to us,” Sherif El Haddad, who joined 21Shares in August as head of Middle East, said.