Original author: Joe Zhou, Foresight News
This is my first time in Dubai and it seems to be very different from the Dubai I have seen on media platforms.
In the two days after landing, my movements included: Dubais financial center (DIFC), shopping mall (Dubai Mall), resort center (The Palm), and visited the offices of Dubais three leading exchanges, experiencing the working and living atmosphere of Dubais Web3 people up close.
However, after walking around, I did not find a BTC ATM, did not see any mobile vendors taking out USDT payment codes for me to pay, and did not see even a single advertisement for a crypto company on the roadside. This is very different from what I saw on the Internet about Dubai Web3.
However, when I stopped and tried to live, I finally gradually felt how Web3 was integrated with Dubai, a global financial center. A friend who played basketball with us in Dubai got sick with a cold. She clicked on Dubais online shopping app to buy medicine and saw an advertisement for the crypto exchange OKX; another friend who lives in Dubai told me that there are also huge advertisements about crypto companies such as XRP on the streets or offline in Dubai, but the overall number of offline advertisements in Dubai is very restrained compared to many countries and regions, so it is not as ubiquitous as in some cities.
I know that it is difficult to fully understand how the city of Dubai accepts cryptocurrency and integrates it into the citys daily life in just five days, so I invited a Dubai local Sherif Sanad to be interviewed by us. He is also the Country Manager of a crypto exchange HashKey in the Middle East and North Africa. We talked about the Dubai crypto ecosystem from the perspective of local people.
Joe: Where are you from?
Sherif: I am from Dubai and grew up in Dubai. I am also Canadian and have a Canadian passport. I have also worked in Hong Kong, the UK, Canada and Cyprus.
Joe: What does a country manager mainly do? What is your usual work rhythm?
Sherif: Comply with local national and regional regulations, obtain and maintain relevant licenses and permits in Dubai, and provide the best services to users under the regulations of VARA (Dubais crypto regulator), including VCs, family offices, fund management companies, etc.
In fact, we start working at 7am every day with our team to figure out how to best serve potential clients in the Middle East. I think Dubai has been positioned as a crypto oasis for the entire Middle East.
Joe: In Dubai, how do ordinary people generally use cryptocurrencies in their daily lives?
Sherif: They use cryptocurrencies to buy properties. The lowest price of housing in Dubai is about $400,000 or $500,000. They actually use stablecoins such as USDT and USDC for down payments and installments. This has become very normal and common. We have seen a lot of this. Joe, you know, Dubai is a tax haven, you dont have to pay taxes, and you dont have to pay visas, which has attracted many Chinese, Singaporeans, Hong Kongers, and Russians to come.
Many investors come to invest in certain specific areas, such as real estate, luxury cars, luxury goods, etc. They rely heavily on using stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, etc. as payment methods. So we see a huge demand, especially from countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Russia, and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States after the disintegration of the Soviet Union).
Joe: What do your family, friends, neighbors, etc. around you think of Web3?
Sherif: My wife is buying cryptocurrencies, she works in a different field, and she is making money, while I am losing money (laughs). I have three children, the eldest is almost 17, and I have two daughters, 13 and 11. I give each of them $3,000 to analyze and research on their own, and now they are thinking about the virtual assets they want to trade, and I set them goals, whoever can make the most money will make a profit. I will add more money to their wallets.
Joe: What encryption product do your kids use?
Sherif: He didnt tell me, it was his secret.
Joe: Do you usually use BTC ATMs in Dubai?
Sherif: Never, we don’t have BTC ATMs. I’ve seen some promising ATM projects in Hungary and Budapest, and it’s amazing to me that people are using ATMs to exchange money. Maybe in the near future, we’ll see BTC ATMs in Dubai.
Joe: There are many countries in the UAE. What are the differences in the encryption environment of these different countries?
Sherif: Currently, there are seven emirates in the UAE, and three of them are at the forefront of the exploration of the crypto industry: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Ras Al Khaimah. Many Asian crypto companies have come to these three emirates to obtain licenses, expand their business to the Middle East, and radiate their business to Europe through the Middle East.
Across the Middle East, surprisingly, some of the biggest countries adopting Bitcoin are Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the UAE, which have the highest number of users. The UAE quickly established a licensing system with the help of regulators, positioning itself as a cryptocurrency hub. This move has attracted many crypto companies to come and obtain licenses and attract local users.
Joe: What do you think are the three most well-known crypto companies in Dubai?
Sherif: Binance is one of the leading crypto companies and they are very famous in the Middle East; OKX is the first company to obtain a Dubai license and they have a large team in Dubai. Another one is what I think is Crypto.com, they are also one of the first exchanges to obtain a license in Dubai and they also have a large team here.
Joe: What challenges do you think they will face in developing business in the Middle East?
Sherif: They think they can use the same business strategy as before in the Middle East, but the culture in the Middle East is completely different, the understanding of customers is completely different, and the way of treating customers is completely different. This is very important for crypto companies that want to enter the Middle East. They must understand the culture of the Middle East, how to approach customers, how to receive customers, etc., because it is completely different from other regions such as Southeast Asia.
Joe: As an ordinary person, what do you think is the biggest challenge of living in Dubai?
Sherif: It’s too hot, especially in the summer, usually around 40 degrees. (Laughs)
Joe: Anything else?
Sherif: You need to own a car because transportation here is very expensive and renting a car is also expensive. (Author: 100 RMB is almost the starting price for a taxi, and it basically costs more than 200 RMB to go 10 kilometers).
In addition, language is also a big challenge. I previously founded an organization called the Arab Chinese Chamber of Commerce to help Chinese and Arabs discuss business, and I think this is something with great potential. Because many Chinese people come to Dubai and dont speak English, this is a big challenge. You dont have to know Arabic here, but you need to know English.
