As he put it – Dubai became the world’s largest regulated crypto market. Not New York. Not London. Not Hong Kong. Not Singapore. Not bad for a place that well into the early 1990s only had one major Western style shopping mall to speak of – the famed Al Ghurair Centre. According to Golub’s figures, for the year-to-date (YTD) 2025, Dubai logged over AED 2.5 trillion (USD680.64 billion) in regulated virtual-asset transactions. He adds that Dubai also boasts over 40 licensed entities under the oversight of its Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), the first such regulator of its kind in the world which was launched in 2022. To its credit, Dubai has also fined 19 firms under clear enforcement measures and more broadly, its neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi – the UAE’s capital – has made a US$2 billion institutional investment into Binance. All of this has happened in just three short years. What did Dubai understand that other places did not? While planning matters, execution is key. While other jurisdictions quibbled over definitions, the UAE built its fintech infrastructure for the growth and development yet to come. To quote Golub’s LinkedIn post: “While Europe buried itself in MiCA [Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation], Dubai executed. While the US chased headlines, VARA licensed markets.” Of VARA’s creation he said – it was “built like sovereign infrastructure. Every major exchange - Binance, OKX, Bybit – moved fast to comply. This wasn’t about “crypto-friendly. This was crypto-integrated.” Musheer and Mark reiterate many of the above sentiments while chatting with Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani, all while sharing their own thoughts on why Dubai has become a successful digital asset hub based on their time on the ground there. As Golub noted, Dubai’s strength was that it had vision before regulation: in that the UAE as a nation understands that “digital assets are not about price - they’re about power.” Additionally, they valued “infrastructure before hype” with “tiered licenses,” “real enforcement” and “credible frameworks.” Lastly, the emirate grasped that integration must precede scale because “digital assets were woven into AI, banking, [the] cloud and sovereign funds.” The net result, according to Golub: “Dubai now governs trust infrastructure for a multi-trillion-dollar global asset class.The UAE is not waiting for the future. It’s building it.” Giving a preview of things to come in the UAE, he points to: - The tokenization of real-world assets - Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)-backed stablecoin flows (“Digital Dirham”) - AI-native finance via MGX, G42, Presight - Onchain financial infrastructure as national policy The emphasis on execution and Dubai’s “can-do attitude” is also something that both Musheer and Mark stress. In an age when so-called crypto hubs like Singapore sluggishly issue licenses, placing a great many firms on provisional, those that get to market first will benefit by virtue of being early movers. Indeed, legal debates about whether stablecoins are currency or securities almost seem quaint at this point. The conversation continues with Jame and Charles. The premise of their book, Arabian Crypto: the UAE has exploded onto the crypto scene. Every important player, from exchanges to DeFi founders to tradfi bankers are setting up shop in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi. But why the UAE? How did this nation of 10 million become the leading global hub for crypto? And is it too late to join the party for those that fancy wanting to participate in the UAE growth story? Arabian Crypto showcases the perspectives of regulators, founders and executives across the spectrum of digital-assets, to understand what makes the UAE tick, how to do business there and how to make sense of the regulatory choices available. There are multiple exciting projects being built there and it begs the question – what will it mean for how the UAE fits into the global industry of blockchain-enabled commerce. The book is a useful primer into the cutting edge of East-meets-West innovation and the future of money. The authors talk to Ajay about their views on VARA’s effectiveness as a regulator, what prompted them to write the book and what they believe it adds to the ever-growing body of work on crypto and fintech writ large. They acknowledge their target audience are those from the world of tradfi, while also noting that there are lessons for established APAC financial hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore to learn from the UAE, too.