Khaldoon al-Mubarak, CEO of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned fund Mubadala Investment Capital, spoke favorably about cryptocurrencies during his recent interview with CNBC.
He claims that the fund is putting money into the crypto ecosystem, singling out blockchain tech and energy as the top areas of interest:
From our perspective, I think we look at the ecosystem around crypto. And I think we are investing in that ecosystem. That could be that's in the block-chain technology, energy usage, etc.
Mubadala, which is connected to crown prince Mohamed bin Zayed, has $243 billion in assets under management.
The organization dabbled in crypto back in 2019 by investing in MidChains, the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the UAE.
MidChains kicked off trading in late September with four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum).
Alex DovbnyaCrypto regulations in the UAE
The Mubadala boss, who also runs the Manchester City football club, doesn’t want to align himself with cryptocurrency skeptics. He says that the technology is “real,” pointing to the rapid growth of the industry that has grown from $250 billion to $3 trillion worth of value in just a few years:
Many people are skeptics. I do not fall in that category. I see this as real.
Speaking of cryptocurrency regulations, al-Mubarak says that they are not in their final form just yet.
However, at some point, he believes that this regulatory environment will have to evolve. In such a way, the cryptocurrency will be able to transition into “something new” as an asset class.
The Central Bank of the UAE is yet to regulate crypto assets, previously stating that it didn’t acknowledge the novel asset class.
For now, the Emirati dirham remains the only acceptable legal tender in the country.
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Gamza Khanzadaev
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin