$243 Billion Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund Mubadala Is Investing in Crypto

This article comes fromU.Today, original author: Alex Dovbnya

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si TangKhaldoon al-Mubarak, CEO of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Capital, recently acceptedCNBC interview

Expressed appreciation for cryptocurrencies. He claims that the fund is pouring money into the crypto ecosystem, citing blockchain technology and energy as areas of greatest interest:

"From our perspective, I think we're looking at the ecosystem around crypto and we're investing in that ecosystem. That could be in blockchain technology, energy use, things like that."

Mubadala Investment Capital, which is linked to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, has $243 billion in assets under management.

Founder of MidChainsexpress, they negotiated with Mubadala for about a year before finalizing the deal. While they did not disclose the value of the investment, they said it was a seven-figure figure in dollar terms.

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Crypto Regulations in the UAE

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who is also in charge of Manchester City Football Club, clarified that he is not a cryptocurrency skeptic. The technology is "real," he said, noting the rapid growth of the crypto industry, which has gone from $250 billion to $3 trillion in market capitalization in just a few years.

"A lot of people are skeptical. I'm not in that category. I think this (cryptocurrency) is real."

When it comes to cryptocurrency regulations, al-Mubarak said that they are not yet finalized.

At some point, however, he believes the current regulatory environment will have to evolve. In this way, cryptocurrencies will be able to transform into a "new" asset class.

The Central Bank of the UAE has yet to regulate crypto assets. Previously, the central bank said it did not recognize the new asset class.December 4, 2019, Central Bank of the United Arab Emiratesdeny

Published an article on the topic "The Governor of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates supports a private cryptocurrency trading platform".

In a supplementary statement, the central bank said its stance on cryptocurrencies is "well known" and that the central bank will not approve any private cryptocurrencies or schemes and has not issued any licenses in the UAE. The Central Bank of the UAE believes that: “Private cryptocurrencies pose potential risks related to price volatility, money laundering and terrorist financing.”

Currently, the UAE dirham remains the only acceptable legal tender in the country.

Meanwhile, the UAE central bank is also exploring digital currency projects. In January 2019, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the UAE Central Bank jointly launched Aber, a digital currency project aimed at facilitating cross-border settlement between the two countries.At the end of November 2020, the Central Banks of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi ArabiaPublished the CBDC project Aber trial report

. The report pointed out that the Aber project is divided into three different phases, gradually expanding the scope of the pilot to 6 different commercial banks. The report concluded that CBDCs are not only technically feasible for cross-border payments, but also represent a significant improvement over centralized payment systems in terms of architectural resilience. The report proposes next steps for research and policy measures, including adopting distributed ledger technology to improve the security of existing systems and expanding the scope of future Project Aber trials.