The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the surprising destination of cryptocurrency token sales having garnered the most investments through this source since the start of 2019. In bitcoin news now, we look at how the Arabian country moved from cryptocurrency oblivion to the topmost country bringing in investments through a combination of different cryptocurrency token sale offerings
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has raised total biggest funds from Token Sales in 2019 — Bitcoin News Now
When all the major kinds of token sales are combined, the United Arab Emirates is the country that has produced the biggest total amount of funds from token sales so far this year. This is according to data released by blockchain research and rating platform CoinSchedule and originally reported by Bloomberg.
According to the CoinSchedule data, token sales conducted in the UAE in 2019 is $210,516,051.00 which represents 25.36% of all the funds raised by token sales from Jan 1 to April 28, 2019. The token sales considered include Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Security Token Offering (STO) and Initial Exchange Offering (IEO).
UAE Topples the United States to lead Token Sale Earnings
Interestingly, UAE had come from nowhere to dethrone the United States as the capital for crypto token sales. In a similar chart from last year, UAE was not ranked among the top 10 destinations for cryptocurrency token sales. However, in this year’s chart, UAE has topped the list while the United States drops to 6th position with less than 5 percent of all token sales funds garnered this year.
In an email correspondence with Bloomberg, Alex Buelau, the chief executive officer of CoinSchedule explained that regulations in the United States have led cryptocurrency investors to leave the country. “We are seeing the continuation of the move away from the USA due to regulatory concerns,” he was quoted as saying.
Discouraging Regulations in the United States
It is common to see the United States excluded from Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) even those conducted by companies created by U.S. citizens. This goes a long way to exemplify the draconian approach to cryptocurrency regulation in the country championed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
U.S. regulators have been cracking down on ICOs which they believe are unregulated securities. Among other things, they are faulted for not clarifying xrp security status and the status of other major ICO tokens. As Smartereum reported notable figures in the cryptocurrency community has condemned the SEC approach as “total disaster”, “over-regulating”, and “unlimited power grab”.
UAE Leads Due is driven by Securities Token Offerings (STOs)
It is no news that ICOs are becoming extinct, and unless a predicted resurgence happens, it is being taken over by a better regulated Securities Token Offerings (STOs). A closer look at the CoinShedule data reveals that the country accounts for over 80 percent of the total funds raised through STOs. Interestingly, UAE does not have many token sales as its token sale earnings come from 2 high profile token sales in 2019. These are:
- $142 million raised by GCBIB to develop banking and insurance products for cryptocurrency holders, and
- $67 million raised by Bolton Coin, a crypto mining and real estate firm.
The highest number of token sales conducted this year was done in Singapore, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States.
Riccardo Lopp is a writer specializing in Crypto, ethereum and whole blockchain ecosystem. His background is in economics and statistics.
