The UAE is now widely recognised as one of the most advanced and founder-friendly crypto jurisdictions in the world. Every day, crypto founders relocate to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, attracted by regulatory clarity, access to capital, global connectivity, and speed of execution.
But this ecosystem did not magically appear.
Only 3 years ago, the UAE was not an obvious crypto destination. Regulation was fragmented, banks were cautious, and there was no dedicated framework for virtual assets.
What changed the game was people – regulators, ecosystem builders, legal architects, financiers, media leaders, and operators who worked relentlessly behind the scenes to design a system that could support crypto at scale.
If you are entering the UAE crypto market in 2026, here is the list of 10 individuals you must know. They are the people who shaped the rules, built the infrastructure, and moved the needle.
The Crypto Mastermind – Deepa Raja Carbon
Chairwoman, Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA)
Deepa Raja Carbon is widely regarded as the strategic mind behind VARA’s long-term vision. VARA was not designed as a reactive regulator, it was built as a future-facing framework capable of regulating innovation without suffocating it.
For crypto founders and digital assets entrepreneurs, understanding VARA’s philosophy is as important as understanding its rules. Successful blockchain and Web3 projects in Dubai are those that align with regulatory intent, not those trying to arbitrage grey zones.
Deepa’s leadership at VARA has helped position Dubai as a global hub for crypto regulation, offering a rare mix of regulatory clarity, innovation-first policy, and market integrity. As the world watches Dubai’s rise in the digital assets space, Deepa Raja Carbon continues to define what forward-looking crypto governance can be.
The Crypto Company Builder – Belal Jassoma
Director, DMCC Crypto Centre
Belal Jassoma oversees one of the world’s largest crypto ecosystems by company count. DMCC Crypto Centre has become a go-to landing zone for exchanges, infrastructure providers, tokenization platforms, and Web3 startups entering the UAE.
Under Belal’s leadership, DMCC has evolved from a strategic location into a fully operational crypto base with over 700 Web3 companies, offering regulatory clarity, commercial support, and access to Dubai’s growing digital asset community. His work has positioned Dubai as a competitive jurisdiction for crypto founders seeking global scale with regional access.
Jassoma continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the business infrastructure for crypto innovation in the UAE by helping bridge the gap between cutting-edge Web3 ventures and Dubai’s forward-looking regulatory and commercial environment.
The UAE Crypto Lawyer – Irina Heaver
Founder, NeosLegal
Irina Heaver is recognised as the UAE’s go-to crypto lawyer, she is the Founder of NeosLegal, a specialised law firm focused on UAE crypto law, VARA licensing, Web3 structuring, and token launches. Since 2016, she has structured 300+ crypto projects, advised governments and regulators on digital asset policy, and guided founders through Dubai VARA licensing, ADGM structuring and broader UAE regulatory pathways.
Her work helps crypto founders build legal structures for exchanges, token issuers, DAOs, DeFi and RWA platforms, covering market entry, licensing strategy, cross-border structuring, and long-term operational resilience.
Irina is a valuable asset for founders because she combines 18 years of UAE legal experience with real operational knowledge. As a former co-founder of a regulated crypto exchange, she understands the realities beyond legal theory.
The Crypto Banker – Michael Chan
CEO, Zand Bank
Michael Chan leads one of the few UAE banks that genuinely understands digital assets. In a market where banking remains the single biggest bottleneck for crypto companies, Zand Bank represents a new generation of regulated financial institutions engaging with crypto pragmatically.
Under Chan’s leadership, Zand has positioned itself as a digital-first bank that supports Web3 startups, blockchain platforms, and token-based businesses with real-world banking access. The bank was recently approved by the UAE Central Bank to launch Zand AED, the country’s first regulated stablecoin, quietly placing it at the center of national-level digital finance infrastructure.
By actively bridging the gap between traditional finance and crypto innovation in the UAE, Zand is helping unlock scalable, compliant growth for the region’s digital asset ecosystem.
The Crypto Founder – Talal Tabbaa
Co-founder, CoinMENA
Talal Tabbaa is one of the region’s most respected crypto founders, having built and scaled a fully regulated exchange in the Middle East. His experience reflects the full operational reality of crypto in the UAE: licensing, banking, compliance, and trust.
As co-founder of CoinMENA, Talal has helped create one of the few exchanges in the region licensed by both the Central Bank of Bahrain and Dubai’s VARA. He’s navigated real-world challenges in crypto adoption, including fiat on-ramps, cross-border payments, and secure custody. His work advancing regulated crypto infrastructure in the Middle East has positioned him as a key voice in digital asset adoption and compliance-driven innovation across the region.
In 2025, CoinMENA’s sale to Paribu marked a quiet inflection point for the MENA digital asset market. The company achieved a reported valuation of up to $240 million on just $20 million in total funding, without ever closing a Series A.
CoinMENA’s exit redefined how value is priced in MENA crypto. It wasn’t about headcount or hype. It was a bet on alignment, restraint, and timing.
The RWA Strategist – Anton Golub
Co-Founder of RWAlabs.ae
Anton Golub is a leading voice in real-world asset tokenization and Web3 infrastructure. As RWAs become a regulatory and investment priority in the UAE, his work highlights where technology, capital, and compliance intersect in the digital asset space.
Anton is the Co-Founder of RWAlabs.ae, a leading RWA tokenization advisory for RWA issuers and RWA platforms. He previously founded a market-making firm and one of the first crypto exchanges, giving him a rare blend of experience across liquidity, blockchain infrastructure, and digital asset governance.
His leadership in the tokenization of real estate, private equity, and other traditional assets is helping shape how the UAE approaches regulated Web3 innovation and the future of finance.
The Tokenized Property Queen – Amira Sajwani
CEO, Prypco
Amira has emerged as a leading figure in on-chain real estate and property tokenization, a sector uniquely aligned with the UAE’s strengths in real estate, capital markets, and innovation.
As CEO of Prypco, a proptech platform focused on digitizing property ownership and enabling fractionalized real estate investing, she is building infrastructure that connects blockchain technology with one of the UAE’s most mature asset classes. Backed by her experience at DAMAC Properties and co-founding roles at firms like Amali, Amira is helping reshape how real estate is bought, sold, and financed in the Web3 era.
Her work places her at the center of Dubai’s evolution into a hub for tokenized assets, proptech innovation, and regulated digital finance.
The Regulator-in-Chief – Matthew White
CEO, Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
Matthew White leads VARA’s execution layer, translating regulatory vision into enforceable frameworks. His leadership defines how licensing, supervision, and enforcement operate in practice across Dubai’s virtual asset market.
As CEO, Matthew is responsible for implementing Dubai’s principle-based crypto regulatory regime, turning policy into real-world operations that enable Web3 innovation while maintaining market integrity and compliance oversight. With a background in cybersecurity and digital trust, and a focus on emerging tech governance, he is uniquely positioned to manage the complex interface between regulators, founders, and digital asset platforms.
His work ensures that Dubai’s crypto ecosystem functions within a clear, credible, and enforceable rulebook, making the emirate a model for regulated digital asset markets globally. Since White’s appointment, over 30 virtual asset entities have been licensed, marking a shift from regulatory ambition to full operational execution.
The Crypto Research Authority – Alice Liu
Lead Research, CoinMarketCap
Alice Liu leads the research division at CoinMarketCap, the world’s most influential crypto data platform and go-to source for real-time digital asset intelligence. She directs crypto market research, publishing regular reports and deep-dive analysis on key industry topics shaping how institutions, traders, and retail investors understand crypto markets.
Her insights drive broader crypto legitimacy, market visibility, and data‑driven perception across the digital assets ecosystem. By bridging rigorous research with accessible analysis, Liu’s work underpins how crypto communities, media, and decision‑makers interpret price action, adoption cycles, and emerging narratives in blockchain innovation.
The Community Builder – Alex Scott
Solana Superteam Lead, Solana Foundation
Alex Scott is known for building and connecting founder, developer, and investor communities within the Solana and broader Web3 ecosystem in Dubai. In the UAE, access to the right rooms often replaces months of cold outreach, and Alex is often the connector who makes those rooms happen.
As a visible presence in Solana’s MENA strategy, Alex has helped anchor the blockchain’s footprint in Dubai through meetups, hackathons, investor roundtables, and grassroots ecosystem support. His work accelerates early-stage traction for startups and fosters real-world collaboration across the crypto, DeFi, and NFT spaces.
By shaping on-the-ground access in one of the world’s fastest-growing Web3 hubs, Alex Scott plays a pivotal role in turning community into capital, and vision into execution.
Why this matters in 2026
The UAE is no longer testing the waters of crypto. It is fully operational. As of 2026, the region offers something rare in the global digital asset landscape: regulatory clarity, institutional-grade infrastructure, and alignment between government, regulators, and industry leaders.
The individuals featured in this list are shaping the legal frameworks, technology platforms, and investor ecosystems that make real-world adoption possible. While many markets remain stalled by policy uncertainty, Dubai has become a launchpad where crypto projects can move from idea to licensed product with unmatched speed.
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