Dubai the Dip? 🇦🇪
Plus: SEC chief outlines fresh crypto agenda
In this week’s edition of The Context, we talk about Dubai’s new crypto deal, Paul Atkins’s crypto plans, and the status of stablecoin legislation in the Senate.
[Dubai DeFi? 🇦🇪]
Through a partnership with Crypto.com, Dubai announced it would begin allowing people to pay for government services, like utilities and parking fees, in major cryptocurrencies.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Dubai is framing this as part of its Dubai Cashless Strategy. The initiative, announced in late 2024, aims “for 90% of financial transactions across the public and private sectors to be powered through cashless methods by 2026,” wrote Stephen Katte (Cointelegraph). It believes doing so will expand its fintech sector and bring in another $2.1B to the economy.
Not just cashless, but crypto. “Dubai has been building its crypto credentials for several years and sees itself as a Middle East crypto hub,” wrote Camomile Shumba (CoinDesk). In 2022, it set up what it says was the “world’s first independent crypto regulator” and began distributing licenses to exchanges.
Partnerships are popping up in Dubai, wrote Justin Varghese (Gulf News). Crypto.com is already working with a UAE gas station chain, and a major Dubai hotel just announced an integration with Bybit.
PR Perspective 🔎:
The timing is strategic. It was announced during the Dubai FinTech Summit, right after the emirate hosted TOKEN2049, reinforcing Dubai's reputation as a crypto-friendly destination. By embracing rather than restricting cryptocurrency, Dubai is attracting fintech innovation and investment while other regions struggle with regulatory uncertainty.
[SEC’s A-Paul-ogy Tour 🎤]
New U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins laid out his crypto philosophy during a Crypto Task Force roundtable on Monday.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Atkins’s SEC will focus on three regulatory areas, wrote Eric Johansson (DLNews): issuance, custody, and trading. Atkins indicated he’ll allow consumers to trade more types of crypto products, let companies figure out new ways of holding onto crypto, and would modify SEC rules so that crypto issuers don’t have to fit into traditional securities regulations.
That means new guidelines for what types of crypto tokens constitute securities (and therefore require SEC approval) and, potentially, new rules for broker-dealers, explained Hannah Lang (Reuters).
The roundtable, attended by big banks, “focused on moving traditional Wall Street securities onto blockchain networks,” noted Sander Lutz (Decrypt). Democratic commissioner Caroline Crenshaw worried the agency, which was antagonistic to crypto under Gary Gensler, is now putting its thumb on the scales for the industry. Moreover, she noted that several of the perceived benefits of tokenizing traditional securities, including instantaneous settlement, might upend safeguards meant to protect against fraud and national security risks.
PR Perspective 🔎:
Coupled with Democrats pulling support from stablecoin legislation (see below), this roundtable shows crypto regulation is becoming partisan—again. Republicans are championing innovation, while Democrats want to ensure consumer protection and market stability.
[Senators Getting Their Act Together 🎭]
After the GENIUS Act failed a procedural vote in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans continue to try to come together to pass the country’s first-ever regulatory framework for stablecoins.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Democrats who supported a previous version of the bill pulled out as a newer version went to the Senate floor, said Jasper Goodman (Politico). “Democratic holdout” Sen. Ruben Gallego said that while a floor vote isn’t imminent, both sides are talking and making progress.
President Trump’s crypto ventures are central to the impasse, with many Democrats wanting to prohibit “officials from profiting off of crypto ventures while in office — something Republicans have rejected out of hand,” said Steven T. Dennis (Bloomberg).
PR Perspective 🔎:
Both sides could use a PR victory that comes with passing legislation. Democrats can win by siding with innovation, potentially earning back some support from tech and finance leaders who abandoned the party. Republicans can help deliver on a Trump campaign promise to make the US a crypto leader. The question is: If it doesn’t pass, which side will look worse?
[Tweet of The Week]
Credit: @AltcoinGordon
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The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).
The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Nathalie Larrea, Meghna Dembla, Samvidha Sharma, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at thecontext@yapglobal.com. Old newsletters can be found here.
This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international PR Consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.