Bahrain emerges as region’s first crypto hub

Despite being home to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, the UAE is not the Gulf region’s emerging regional crypto hub. 

Binance doesn’t have a license as an exchange in Dubai, nor does it have banking regulations for crypto in place. However, it has recently been approved to become a fully regulated, centralized crypto exchange in neighboring Bahrain. 

Bahrain already has banking regulations for crypto, which makes it an attractive home for crypto companies to set up there. The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) also accepts cryptocurrencies as an official method of payment, which allows banks to work with exchanges. 

CoinMENA is not the only exchange licensed by the CBB. The cryptocurrency platform, Rain, which held a trading volume of over $1 billion in the first half of 2021, is based in the country and licensed by the central bank.