The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as one of the fastest-growing destinations for Web3 projects, thanks to the initiatives taken by its government.
A recent research report published by the Web3 platform Crypto Oasis Ecosystem highlighted the dominance of the UAE in the Web3 economy as it identified more than 1,450 active Web3 organizations with nearly 7,000 individuals.
The report divided Web3-based projects into two categories: native and non-native blockchain projects. Native blockchain projects are those solely based on native decentralized technology. Currently, there are 950 organizations (65%) working toward this, while 500 organizations (35%) fall under the non-native category.
The report highlighted that the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre has registered more than 460 native organizations, which is more than 50% of all the native blockchain organizations in Dubai.
Related: Binance seeks to boost Web3 adoption in the MENA region
The UAE government has been quite proactive in the adoption of blockchain technology and the nascent markets associated with it, be it the metaverse, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or Web3. The ongoing Future Blockchain Summit in Dubai is another initiative that promotes global business opportunities for Web3 innovators.
The Dubai government announced a metaverse strategy in July with an aim to turn it into one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies. The initiative promoted Dubai’s ambitions to support more than 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030. The UAE Ministry of Economy doubled down on the plan by the end of September as it became one of the first governments to open a headquarters in the metaverse.
The UAE’s focus on Web3 technology has also made the country a hotspot for some of the leading global crypto platforms and companies. Global crypto exchange Binance marked its presence among Middle Eastern investors by running various licensed operations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other regions.