The crypto evolution: How is UAE leading investment opportunities in crypto and blockchain?

The rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has shifted the global financial landscape, and the UAE has emerged as a pivotal player in this transformation

At SuperReturn Middle East 2025, we spoke to Lucy Gazmararian, Founder & Managing Partner, Token Bay Capital, about how UAE has risen to be recognised as a leader in MENA. Watch the interview below to learn about what has contributed to this growth (and how it's continuing), navigating the regulatory framework the region has established and how to get started in this space as a GP to ensure you create the most value for your LPs.

Transcript of interview

MENA is emerging as a crypto-powerhouse. What is contributing to this development and what are the future prospects?

So I would say that today the UAE is the leader in the whole MENA region and they've got established regulatory framework that in turn has attracted really high quality businesses that are looking to get into crypto finance, but they want to operate in a way that's in keeping with international guidelines and regulations for financial markets.

And that is where UAE has absolutely outshone. All the other jurisdictions in making sure extremely high quality crypto frameworks exist. And they, these frameworks are in Dubai with vara, which is focused on crypto native country companies, but also in Abu Dhabi with a whole financial services framework that actually meets the standards for international regulators for financial services more broadly.

So they've set the bar very high and actually companies that really want to build for the future and build high quality businesses, want high quality frameworks that. Make sure that businesses thrive and they have the right oversight. So I would say UAE is a leader in the region, but we're gonna get a lot more activity across the rest of the mena region.

And it's gonna be very exciting to see, how different countries and regions differentiate. Themselves and what crypto focus they have. Because crypto is an enormously wide industry. It's not limited to financial services, that is a key component. But crypto and blockchain is obviously gonna be plumbing for any activity on the internet.

How can GPs position themselves in the crypto and blockchain space in this region to deliver the most value to LPs?

So I would say if you are an investor and you're looking to get into the crypto space, at this point in crypto cycle, it's still very nascent. It's now more widely heard of in mainstream media, but actually the size of the industry is relatively small. We're talking about a market cap of just over 4 trillion.

You've got stocks on the the Nasdaq that actually have a larger market cap than the entire crypto market cap at this point. So it's still. A niche market, and therefore, if you have a niche fund that is looking exclusively in the space, you're gonna get really good exposure to all the new trends in the space, the new upcoming protocols, companies, networks, and also the intersection of AI and crypto that's really starting to concentrate in this really exciting space that's gonna form the new plumbing of the internet. So I would say if you want exposure to crypto, a good place to start is a fully focused crypto native fund that's spending 150% of their time looking at opportunities in the crypto space.