First Registered DLT Foundation Under ADGM in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Pioneering Digital Infrastructure in MENA‌

TL;DR:

The new IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation is the first DLT foundation registered with the Abu Dhabi Global Market in the United Arab Emirates. The IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation will be seeded with over $100 million in IOTA tokens for nurturing the IOTA ecosystem and accelerating the growth of the IOTA protocol in the region, fostering community-driven initiatives and regulatory synergy.

In September this year, we shared our plans for a new Foundation in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to grow our global expansion.

Today, we’re excited to announce that the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation has been registered as the first foundation under the DLT Foundations Regulations of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). This landmark achievement positions IOTA at the forefront of digital and real-world convergence in the financial sector in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and globally.

We look forward to working with ADGM’s authorities to drive forward the regulatory landscape and bridge the gap between the real world and the digital one. ADGM has one of the most progressive and responsive regulatory frameworks, making our collaboration a major step toward bringing institutional investors and assets into the digital ecosystem.

The IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation will be seeded with over $100 million in IOTA tokens, to be vested over the next four years. This funding is earmarked for nurturing the IOTA ecosystem and accelerating the growth of the IOTA protocol. In line with its community-driven ethos, the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation will foster valuable partnerships in the region to advance the adoption of IOTA and its staging network, Shimmer, across various sectors. This includes collaboration with institutional investors, governments, and academic institutions for the tokenization of real-world assets and bringing them on-chain, thus bringing billions of dollars into the UAE’s virtual assets space.

Our inroad into the UAE aims to cultivate a flourishing crypto community within ADGM’s ecosystem. In the future, regularly held events will encourage a common vision for a decentralized future and drive Abu Dhabi’s crypto hub forward through its legal framework.

Hamad Sayah Al Mazrouei, CEO of the Registration Authority (RA) of ADGM said, “Welcoming IOTA, one of the most established and well-respected blockchain protocols into ADGM’s DLT regime exemplifies our ambition to position Abu Dhabi’s stature as a prime location and ADGM as the leading jurisdiction for the blockchain industry. It is a strong validation of ADGM’s progress with its new and revolutionary DLT Foundations Framework. Working with companies like IOTA, ADGM aims to move towards a future characterized by setting global benchmarks in the ever-evolving blockchain and Web3 landscape”.

“The IOTA Foundation’s support from ADGM and our partnership with UAE authorities is about more than global expansion. It’s about ushering in a new era of regulatory synergy in the crypto markets,” said Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chairman of the IOTA Foundation. “We want to ensure that we take the right steps toward digital autonomy for everyone, and that means making sure a diversity of communities take an active role in shaping the Foundation’s technology and governance.”

About the ADGM

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is the international financial center (IFC) of the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, which opened for business on 21st October 2015. ADGM augments Abu Dhabi’s position as a leading financial center and a business hub serving as a strategic link between the growing economies of the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and the rest of the world.

Operating within an international regulatory framework based on direct application of English Common Law, ADGM governs the entire Al Maryah Island and Al Reem Island, which is designated as the financial free zone of Abu Dhabi.

ADGM is ranked as one of the most preferred top IFCs in the Middle East and Africa region and named MENA’s largest fintech hub. Its progressive and inclusive business ecosystem gravitates toward global financial and non-financial institutions while leveraging synergies between ADGM and multiple jurisdictions positioned as one of the world’s most advanced, diverse, and progressively governed financial hubs.

For more details on ADGM, please visit www.adgm.com or follow it on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

A new global benchmark

As we embark on this exciting journey with ADGM, our goal is to empower a diverse range of communities to actively participate in shaping the future of IOTA and DLT/blockchain. We’re especially looking forward to contributing to a new era in regulatory collaboration within crypto markets. ‌‌

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