By Lawrence Delevingne and Federico Maccioni
DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) – Laia Fernández has been working as normal as a crypto marketing executive from her high-rise apartment in Dubai’s gleaming downtown business district, even as occasional sounds of projectile interceptions act as reminders of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
While the conflict has thrown global energy markets and transport into chaos across the Middle East, the blockchain industry’s virtual-first structure and culture appear to have kept it resilient as the war enters its third week.
“Daily life hasn’t dramatically changed,” Fernández said of the United Arab Emirates, which has emerged as a crypto hub in recent years, with the government investing in and promoting the industry.
Fernández said her clients, like other crypto companies based in the UAE, operate globally with cloud-based infrastructure and trading on virtual marketplaces, meaning little disruption even with many of their employees working from home or temporarily travelling abroad.
Despite multiple attacks on Dubai, including on its airport on Monday, which have dented the emirate’s status as a regional safe haven for tourism and business, the flow of crypto, it turns out, has so far been easier to maintain than oil or gas.
Alex Scott, a crypto executive who promotes the Solana blockchain in Dubai, is optimistic for the longer term in part because the conflict has accelerated conversations about financial infrastructure resilience.
“The fundamentals that made the UAE attractive for crypto and blockchain haven’t changed,” Scott told Reuters.
Bitcoin has edged higher since the U.S. and Israeli strikes began on February 28, hitting $73,949 on Tuesday, but is still down around 15% for the year.
Thomas Puech, CEO of crypto trading firm INDIGO, said there were no signs of flows linked to an exodus from the UAE.
GLOBAL HUB
The UAE’s embrace of crypto includes dirham-backed stablecoins approved by the central bank, blockchain trading services provided by some local lenders and on-chain payments accepted or announced for real estate projects, including a Trump Tower under construction in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-backed investor MGX last year purchased a $2 billion stake in Binance, while another government-linked entity spent $500 million for partial ownership of World Liberty Financial, a crypto company co-founded by U.S. President Donald Trump, his sons and other business partners.
A World Liberty spokesman previously told Reuters that the President had no involvement in the deal and rejected any notion of governmental favour-trading.
Karl Naim, an Abu Dhabi-based executive for crypto investment firm XBTO, told Reuters that the biggest immediate impact on the UAE was a rise in caution, with practical issues around travel disruption, delayed meetings, and a general shift toward contingency planning.
His team, already used to hybrid home-office work, is working remotely instead of at their office in ADGM, Abu Dhabi’s financial centre, which is near a targeted military port.
“We are not worried about our wellbeing, but worried about the situation not stabilizing anytime soon,” Naim said.
Some regional events have been cancelled or postponed, including TOKEN2049, a major crypto conference in Dubai, and the security situation in the region remains fluid.
Citigroup said on Monday it was keeping most branches and offices in the UAE closed until further notice. The U.S. bank, Britain’s Standard Chartered and the London Stock Exchange Group have previously told employees in Dubai to work remotely.
‘ON HOLD’
Gordon Einstein, founder of CryptoLaw Partners, said that UAE regulatory functions were running smoothly and Dubai was still the best choice over Europe and Asia in terms of regulation, taking into account access to local capital.
Einstein said a large cohort of UAE investors and entrepreneurs, many transient expats, had left temporarily but could still run their businesses abroad. Whether or not they return, and how strong the UAE’s crypto scene stays, depends on how long the conflict lasts, he added.
“Dubai lives off the idea that people want to come here,” Einstein, a resident of the city, told Reuters.
“That’s on hold right now,” he added.
(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Federico Maccioni in Dubai. Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris. Editing by Tom Lasseter and Alexander Smith)
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