Crypto to become UAE’s second-biggest sector in 5 years

The crypto sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on track to become its second-largest industry in the next five years, due to the country’s regulatory policies and attractive business environment, according to Chase Ergen, a board member of publicly traded digital asset investment firm DeFi Technologies.

“They have a reputation for leadership, legislation, and community,” Ergen told Cointelegraph in an interview. He also predicted:

“They sell oil, that’s their main business. I think their second-biggest business is going to be the blockchain industry in the next five years. This will start to be double-digit parts of the economy.”

The country has a clear crypto regulatory framework, a community of key crypto industry executives, a debt-free economy that allows the government to funnel surplus into tech investments, low crime, , and forward-thinking leadership, Ergen added. 

The UAE has created a moat that has made it the in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) amid growing nation-state adoption of crypto and the race between sovereign powers to become global leaders in the digital finance age.

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Nation-state crypto adoption accelerated in 2025, following the inauguration of president Donald Trump in the United States and the regulatory shift that followed.

The Trump White House released its long-promised crypto in July, to make the US the global leader in crypto.

Pakistan’s government in November 2024, one day before the US presidential election.

Since that time, Pakistan has and to craft a comprehensive digital asset regulatory framework within the country.

Sovereign wealth funds, including the UAE’s Mubadala and Norway’s sovereign fund, have () through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investment vehicles.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest state-directed investment fund of its kind in the world, by 192% over the last year, according to crypto research firm K33.

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