According to April 29, 2019, published by Bloomberg, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has eclipsed the U.S. as the world’s crypto capital.
The UAE Outshines the US
Towards the end of the rollercoaster ride that was 2018, the majority of crypto enthusiasts opined that 2019 could be a make or break year for the cryptocurrency industry. The ecosystem desperately needed a reset to recover from the continual downward spiral that began sometime towards the end of Q1 2018.
believed that 2019 would bring with it a radically new cryptocurrency ecosystem with new countries and companies spearheading the change. Now, it seems that their optimism wasn’t unfounded as, within four months, the industry has introduced robust methods of raising funds and has also witnessed the steady metamorphosis of relatively small nations into noisy crypto business hotbeds.
Citing data from a by blockchain rating site , Bloomberg reports that the UAE accounted for more than 25 percent of crypto funds raised in 2019.
Dubbing the country as the “world’s capital for sales of digital tokens,” the reports adds that digital tokens sales in the UAE bagged more than $210 million in the first four months of 2019. This feat by the Gulf nation is a particularly significant one as it puts it ahead of industry giant’s, the U.S., for the first time.
A longtime leader of the crypto industry, the U.S. has slipped six positions to number seven, CoinSchedule’s data shows. What’s even more impressive is that in 2018, the UAE didn’t even rank among the top ten countries by funds raised in token sales.
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Other states among the top five preferred destinations for digital token sales include the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UK. Interestingly enough, Zimbabwe ranks ninth in this list, just behind Canada which occupies the eighth position.
Regulatory Uncertainty Has Put the US Crypto Ecosystem in Limbo
Alex Buelau, chief executive officer of CoinSchedule, told Bloomberg via email:
“We are seeing the continuation of the move away from the USA due to regulatory concerns.”
This hardly comes as a surprise as of late U.S. regulatory bodies have been cracking down on initial coin offerings () due to the legal ambiguity surrounding digital tokens. Although blockchain and crypto lobbyists have been for the establishment of clear regulations for the nascent space, little progress seems to have taken place so far.
Published at Tue, 30 Apr 2019 09:00:23 +0000
