The United Arab Emirates is the leading Middle Eastern country in using Web3 in the financial sector.
Analysts at Bitget Research published a report on the results of their study of Middle Eastern countries in the context of overall trends seen in the local digital asset markets. As of February 2024, the overall number of active users from the region trading cryptocurrencies on CEXs averaged approximately 417,000 per day.
Morocco saw the highest growth in the number of users among countries in the region, with a 148% year-over-year increase, followed by Egypt and the UAE at 72% and 68%, respectively.
The report notes that the UAE leads in the overall level of crypto adoption among Middle Eastern countries. Analysts point to the sector’s developed legal regulation, characterized by a friendly attitude toward the Web3 industry, as the main reason for this situation.
The UAE citizens use cryptocurrencies in various capacities, among which stand out:
- a speculative trading tool — 34%;
- a convenient way to store assets — 29%;
- a means of payment — 22%.
The most popular type of trading transaction in the country is P2P payments. The most popular digital asset among the UAE citizens is BTC — 72% of crypto users own it. Approximately 17.15% of thematic traffic in the UAE came from the DEXTools trading platform, which leads to popularity among all Web3 solutions. In second place (16.23%) is the analytical service DEX Screener, and in third place (14.06%) is the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Middle Eastern users get primary information about the cryptocurrency market from social networks X (ex-Twitter) and YouTube, mainly in Arabic. Telegram and English-language materials are also popular in the UAE, which is unique for other countries.
In recent years, the UAE authorities have been actively working on the formation of a global cryptocurrency hub in the country. Thus, legislation regarding the digital currency market is being developed at the state level and within the framework of special economic zones, for example, in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). All this has led to the UAE starting to play a significant role in the Web3 economy.
