Venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary says that a major crypto exchange is being set up to launch in the Middle East.
In a new Fox Business interview, O’Leary says that the hostile regulatory climate in the United States is letting innovative crypto firms slip away from the country.
The Shark Tank star says that instead of burgeoning in the US, major players are looking to build in other countries that have a friendlier stance on the nascent industry.
“This hasn’t been announced yet but in Abu Dhabi, they are planning to launch a new exchange to replace both FTX and Binance, and they’re going to get billions [of dollars] on it called M2.
[It is going to be] totally compliant, backed by billions of dollars, incredibly stable, ownership transparency and it can be used by anybody in the world legitimately on a compliant basis…
It’s going to become the new standard in exchanges because you can’t hold Bitcoin without an exchange for liquidity.”
According to O’Leary, the emergence of Abu Dhabi as a big competitor in the crypto space should serve as a wake-up call to American lawmakers and regulators.
“Gensler has sued Coinbase, the largest [crypto exchange] in the US, which is why Fidelity and BlackRock were there on the Hill. [They] were really unhappy because they can’t do their ETF (exchange-traded fund).
Well, Abu Dhabi is putting up its hand and saying, ‘We can do it over here. If you can’t get it done there, we’ll do it here. We’re the new capital of capital and we’re coming to compete.'”
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