A yacht occasion hosted by DogeOS in the course of the Token2049 Dubai convention week. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Might 1, 2025
Natasha Turak | CNBC
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — On a moist Dubai evening in early Might, I joined friends gathered on the five-storey, 220-foot lengthy Lotus megayacht to rejoice the end result of TOKEN2049, a significant crypto convention held within the glitzy desert emirate I name dwelling.
The occasion was hosted by DogeOS, the app developer behind the blockchain for Dogecoin, the shiba inu-faced meme coin that noticed a rip-roaring rally in 2021 and briefly turned a couple of bullish patrons into millionaires.
It is a part of an extended string of high-profile UAE-based business occasions and seems like a prescient image of the ever-growing exuberance round cryptocurrencies within the Center East — and globally — proper now.
The attendees round me spanned a colourful combine; crypto traders and startup founders, programmers, influencers – and those that, after half an hour of dialog, nonetheless would not actually clarify what they do.
“You have in all probability heard of me. Elon retweets me lots,” one visitor mentioned as he launched himself. I later heard him say the very same line to 3 different individuals.
One pair of feminine attendees promoted their Dubai-based startup that designs enterprise plans for corporates and entrepreneurs “by calculating their astrology and delivery chart numerology.” They informed me that “millionaires usually look down on this science … however billionaires adore it.”
Bartenders serve friends aboard the 220-foot lengthy Lotus megayacht within the Dubai Marina, Might 1, 2025
Natasha Turak | CNBC
The friends hailed from everywhere in the world, sharing a typical ardour for the way forward for decentralized digital forex and the revolutionizing of finance. A microcosm of Dubai itself, the boat was a melting pot of nationalities and characters.
One American passenger sporting a cowboy hat and a ninja turtle backpack hawked a meme token that includes a shiba inu in a cowboy hat referred to as $WIT coin, standing for “what in tarnation.” Between photographs of tequila he mentioned collaboration with crypto lovers who’d flown in from China.
An organizer of the DogeOS yacht occasion welcomes friends aboard the Lotus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Might 1, 2025
Natasha Turak | CNBC
The guestlist additionally featured Olaf Carlson-Wee, the bleach-blonde unique “bubble boy” of crypto, who was Coinbase’s first worker and later based Polychain Capital, one of many world’s largest crypto hedge funds. Carlson-Wee, whose internet price is estimated to be within the a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands, mentioned he’s incessantly flown in from Los Angeles to work with the UAE authorities.
The Trump crypto practice involves Dubai
The bullish vitality of the yacht occasion — full with open bars, teppanyaki grills and Vegas-style stomach dancers sporting feather headdresses — matched the unbridled optimism at the moment pulsing by way of the worldwide crypto neighborhood.
Posts of “WE’RE SO BACK” have abounded on social media within the months following U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White Home and his pledge to make America the “crypto capital of the world.”
His son Eric Trump, govt vice chairman of the Trump Group and board member of Trump-family-owned crypto platform World Liberty Monetary, was a keynote speaker at Dubai’s Token2049. He was joined by Zack Witkoff, World Liberty Monetary’s co-founder, and the son of Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Center East envoy.
“Good individuals, low taxes … and the willingness to truly look ahead and understand that the fashionable monetary system is damaged” is a part of what makes the UAE so enticing for cryptocurrency lovers like himself, the youthful Trump informed CNBC in the course of the convention.
Talking onstage on the occasion on Might 1, Eric Trump additionally introduced that the Trump household’s World Liberty Monetary would supply the stablecoins for Abu Dhabi state-backed funding agency MGX’s mammoth $2 billion funding into Binance, the world’s largest crypto change.
“We thank MGX and Binance for his or her belief in us,” Zack Witkoff informed the viewers. “It is solely the start.”
‘All people was right here’
Jordan Jefferson, CEO of MyDoge, the group behind DogeOS, moved from Canada to Dubai in 2022 in the hunt for a extra crypto-friendly regulatory surroundings. At a time when North America was cracking down on the business, he mentioned the UAE was “embracing it and main regulation.”
“I got here out right here as a result of it was on the forefront of the business. And all people was right here – the vitality was superb,” he informed CNBC on the yacht occasion. Jefferson and his colleagues had donned shirts emblazoned with an image of the Doge shiba inu sporting an Emirati headdress, the kandura, which they dubbed “Habibi Doge.”
A part of the Dubai skyline as seen from the DogeOS yacht occasion on Might 1, 2025, within the United Arab Emirates
Natasha Turak | CNBC
Main crypto exchanges like Binance, Crypto.com, OKX, Bybit, and Kraken have acquired approvals or provisional licenses to function within the UAE, with many selecting to open places of work and regional headquarters there. The Gulf nation has additionally established a “UAE blockchain technique,” hosts a number of main crypto occasions yearly and presents visas to distant staff and entrepreneurs together with streamlined procedures for beginning companies.
“They’re main the best way in regulation, positively making an attempt to be one of many premier jurisdictions the place all the pieces is totally regulated,” Jefferson mentioned of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Dubai in 2022 established the Digital Belongings Regulatory Authority, or VARA — the world’s first impartial crypto regulator — which oversees digital asset actions within the emirate and offers licensing and supervision to crypto companies.
Abu Dhabi International Market within the UAE capital additionally up to date its digital asset framework in 2023, offering a clearer licensing and regulatory surroundings for crypto exchanges, custodians, and different digital asset service suppliers.
Scandals and regulation
Regardless of having fun with a rally in costs in recent times, the crypto business has confronted quite a few scandals and controversies over time, from the collapse of FTX to the jailing of the crypto change’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Earlier than declaring chapter in November of 2022, FTX had established its regional headquarters in Dubai and was one of many early companies issued a license by VARA in March of that 12 months, because the emirate labored to entice crypto companies.
Zhao, a Dubai resident, has since been launched from jail after serving a four-month time period on prices of cash laundering. He was granted UAE citizenship, although the timing of his Emirati naturalization has not been publicly disclosed.
In February, Dubai-based digital forex change Bybit revealed it was the sufferer of a hack that noticed cybercriminals make off with $1.5 billion price of tokens — the largest-ever crypto heist in historical past.
The UAE has discovered from its experiences, Token2049 attendees informed CNBC.
“It is not straightforward” to implement strong regulation, Jefferson of DogeOS mentioned. “It is easy to say, ‘hey, you are able to do something right here’. It is more durable to do a regulatory framework the place different international locations world wide will settle for it and understand that in the event you’re an organization constructed right here [in the UAE] and below these laws, it is legit. So I feel that is in all probability crucial half.”
Walkway of the Dubai Marina, Might 1, 2025
Natasha Turak | CNBC
A number of crypto traders described due diligence work within the UAE as having grow to be extra refined, however say regulation is at a stage that also makes it friendlier to the business than the U.S. or Europe.
“Folks actually really feel a lot safer constructing crypto firms in Dubai versus in the USA — the U.S. may be very over-regulated,” mentioned William Athanas, a Miami-based founder. “And that is one thing they’re engaged on – Trump and Elon [Musk] urged that they wish to take away 10 laws for each one they add. However we simply have not actually seen that but.”
On the evening of the yacht occasion, Might 1, Bitcoin was buying and selling at $94,808. On the time of publishing, it’s buying and selling at $110,538.
Danni Liu, a Chinese language nationwide at the moment based mostly in Sweden who co-founded LIFE Protocol — a platform that makes use of the blockchain to allow community-driven scientific analysis — was in Dubai for the primary time to attend the crypto convention and DogeOS boat occasion.
“Earlier than I received right here, it felt just like the market sentiment was not that prime, individuals had been much less keen to take dangers,” Liu mentioned. “However I got here to Dubai, and I see that persons are nonetheless dancing. I used to be stunned. The present is occurring.”
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
