Although higher market volatility has changed the investors’ sentiment, it didn’t stop the global crypto-centric developments. For example, Dubai, which showed keen interest in cryptocurrency and web 3 technology, is again on the news cycle for being a rapidly growing crypto hub.
In its latest developments, one of the UAE’s high-rated luxury hotels has enrolled cryptocurrency payments and allows visitors to reserve hotel rooms by paying with Shiba Inu coin (SHIB).
The Dubai-located five-star restaurant named ‘W Dubai – The Palm’ is owned by Marriott International and facilitates visitors with around 350 guest rooms. Notably, the hotel has a partial beach so the visitors can enjoy the beautiful views of the city skyline and Arabian Gulf located ahead.
Currently ranked in the 14th spot, Shiba Inu launched in 2020 and gained enough popularity by profiting investors with massive gains in this period.
Crypto-friendly traveler site, Travala, used to book rooms and other traveling products, announced featuring SHIB payments at The Palm hotel via a tweet. The announcement also attached a video covering stunning views from the hotel. Travala, which enrolled SHIB payments in December 2021, allows users to buy 3 million traveling products from its website.
Crypto Adoption In Dubai Is On The Rise
W Dubai – The Palm does not appear as the first in the emirate to facilitate crypto payments. Palazzo Versace Dubai hotel and resort previously enabled crypto payments in partnership with giant crypto exchange Binance. The platform allows booking hotel services using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin BNB.
Since UAE has become an emerging platform for blockchain developments, the latest news seems usual, as a large number of companies, stores, and businesses are already receiving cryptocurrencies in payments. Hence, every small and large business there looks for its presence in crypto.
Moreover, prominent crypto companies have jumped to the emirate to represent themselves in the Gulf countries’ technology hub. Likes of Binance, FTX, and Crypto.com have already opened their offices in UAE. Crypto-friendly regulations have attracted many other companies from around the globe to establish headquarters in the regime, which also accelerated mainstream crypto adoption.
Dedicated Regulatory Authority VARA
Dubai turned to a crypto-friendly regime following UAE’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced his vision to transform Dubai into a virtual city. In March, he approved new legislation for the crypto sector and built an independent regulatory authority for virtual assets named VARA.
Besides restaurants, other businesses are also experiencing crypto payments. For example, one of Dubai’s real estate developers, Damac Properties, announced in April that it would receive payments in cryptocurrencies. While commenting on this decision of Dubai’s developer, Ali Sajwani, head of the company’s digital transformation and general manager at Damace, added;
This move towards customers holding cryptocurrency is one of our initiatives to accelerate the new economy for newer generations and for the future of our industry.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com