Why Coinbase Is Doubling Down on the UAE Amid Middle East Tensions

Welcome back to Market Movers.

The opening bell.

While the Middle East is navigating a complex geopolitical landscape right now, but institutional capital flows suggest a high degree of resilience.

Now the UAE and specifically Abu Dhabi continues to position itself not just as open for business, but as a rapidly expanding hub for global wealth and digital assets.

John Dagostino, head of Strategy for Coinbase institutional and board member of AA joins me now to talk about Coinbase's continued commitment to the region.

John, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

While we continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East and we all know that geopolitical tensions to remain.

So how is Coinbase maintaining their presence in the region.

First of all, my heart goes out to everybody in the UAE and all the Gulf states that are under attack.

It's a horrible situation.

I think.

Even though one life lost is too many, it's extraordinary how they've managed to limit the casualties and injuries, and that's testament to what I've seen over the last 25 years of traveling there, how they treat their citizens and their visitors.

So to any of the viewers out there who are going through this, um, our thoughts are with you.

So Coinbase obviously very famously made the largest acquisition in crypto history probably a little over a year ago with Darabi, which is headquartered in the UAE in Dubai.

We remain committed to that business.

That business is growing, not shrinking.

We also have an active application for registration in Abu Dhabi under the DFSA.

So the UAE has in 25 years, I mean I've watched the UAE build a global financial center in less time it takes most countries to build a bridge, and that's not an exaggeration.

So what they've done in crypto and outside of crypto has been truly extraordinary.

So there's 3 primary regulators, FSRA and DFSA.

The sort of friendly competition between those regulators catapulted them into being a global crypto center during a period of time when in the US and Europe.

The administrations and regulatory regimes were going in exactly the opposite direction.

So I think even though that's shifted, there's a tremendous amount of institutional loyalty to a region that set the gold standard for thoughtful, tech-forward digital asset legislation that doesn't go away in a few months or even a few years.

So I think the commitment is there from us.

The commitment is there from the industry writ large because they earned it.

And John, you have personally been in the financial space for many decades, and as you highlighted, we know that markets go through cycles.

So given what we saw in 2025 in terms of ADGM's commitment and what is happening on the ground right now, give us an idea of the implications, the impact moving forward.

So look for ADGM and DFSA, they've got a strategic advantage in being they have a wonderful slogan, the Capital of Capitals, but it's it's not just capital we think of when we hear that we think sovereign wealth funds, and that's true.

They're mostly located in Abu Dhabi, but they have incredibly strong banking sector.

And so Bank FAB, for example, not just being the largest bank in the UAE with a presence here in the US down in DC.

They launched a stablecoin, a durham-backed stablecoin.

The durham is backed by the dollar, so indirectly the largest bank in the UAE has launched a US dollar-backed stablecoin.

If we, if you consider the role of US dollar backed stablecoins in ensuring US dollar dominance, that is a further indication of the tremendous relationship that the US has with the UAE.

They are our strongest ally in the Middle East, so.

The banking sector is not going away.

The trillions of dollars of sovereign wealth fund capital is not going away.

As I mentioned before, the people who have moved, particularly since COVID, I noticed something very, very interesting again, 25 year history there as the place has grown in prominence, I usually get the phone call when somebody wants to move there.

So I've done hundreds of those phone calls over the years, and I noticed something very interesting post-COVID.

The people who were calling me and saying that they were moving there.

Could live and work anywhere in the world.

These are individuals who could easily get a top job at any major financial institution.

And so the quality and sophistication of that senior leadership at the asset management firms, at the exchanges, at the financial services firms, the banks, the sovereign wealth firms themselves, has never been higher.

Those people aren't leaving.

So when the dust finally settles, they have capital, they have banking.

They have core infrastructure.

Anyone who's lived there sees how efficient the systems are, and they have some of the top talent in the world that is committed to the region.

So that's how you not just survive but thrive.

That's why they dig out of these holes when they happen periodically.

Yes, and do you continue to highlight the importance of relationships, and I understand that you spent a lot of time there.

So therefore you know a lot of people on the ground there.

So what are you hearing from them right now, John?

I mean kind of shocking resilience, to be honest.

These are personal phone calls.

They are very grateful for actually a very similar story to what I heard during COVID.

They're extremely grateful for the efficiency with which the whole process is being run, the way the government is looking after them.

UAE is extraordinary.

I was there I was there when that big flood hit.

All the videos were floating around.

People called me and said, Are you OK?

Is everything all right?

I said, Yeah, I had a 6 hour delay where I was stuck in the Emirates lounge where the worst thing that happened to me was they ran out of smoked salmon.

So if that flood would have happened in New York, you'd have a 2 week dig out.

I was on a flight 6 hours later.

I understand Emirates is launching full service again on March 29th, so God speed to that effort.

So they understand that the place runs really, really well.

A lot of people who move to that part of the world move there for a very specific reason.

They want to rebuild.

They want to build something extraordinary, and they want the thoughtful regulatory environment in which to do so.

Those people are not abandoning that dream because of this, just like they didn't abandon it during the bankruptcy, etc. etc.

So the folks that I know who've made serious commitments to the region, they're worried, they're scared.

There's no question.

I won't sugarcoat that.

Uh, but they appreciate the effort the government's placing on their safety, and they're not thinking about abandoning.

What you ate?

And John, finally, before I let you go, I do want to ask you about the current chapter as well as the upcoming chapter of your book that is being written about you because you have navigated so many market cycles, and I think in life as well as in market cycles, hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but give us your vision.

Yeah, so it's, it's, it's been a long time.

Uh, Amazing author Ben Mezrich wrote a book about the work that I did in Dubai on behalf of the New York Mercantile Exchange many years ago.

Uh, it was a very, very popular book.

It had all these bestseller lists around the world, so I would get inundated even though I changed my name in the book.

It's crazy how people can find you.

So even to this day, I probably get 4 or 5 phone calls or texts a week from.

Uh, young people, a very popular book with young people, uh, Ben writes what's called aspirational narrative nonfiction.

And so what I tell them is the UAE for me represents what they should be striving for in their career whether they move to the EU or not, which I think is a viable option now.

I used to I used to tell people, look, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, if you're in finance, go to New York or London.

If you're in filmmaking, go to LA or India, etc. etc.

I think there's a wider set of options now, and the UAE is absolutely an option to build your career.

Uh, but what it represented to me and what I tried to get across when I, when I gave my notes to Ben to write that book, um, it, it represented optionality and ultimately you want to give yourself maximum optionality and so the, the, the way in which I hope people take the book and the way in which they see this view is that when that book was written, nobody cared about the UAE.

When I came back, I was sort of laughed at that first time for thinking we could build a major capital markets exchange in the middle of the desert.

But I remember they took me to the gold souk where the traders were buying and selling gold, and I remember it reminded me so much of the NME floor and the stock exchange floor, and I came back and said they're traders.

I'm I'm watching guys do option math in their head to figure out how to sell a bracelet based on a print.

Back then we didn't even have really smartphones based on texts coming in over pagers of what the gold price was in London.

Is the environment, whether you're choosing a company, whether you're choosing a start who your partners are going to be in your startup or you're choosing where to live and build and grow your career in business, that's the environment you want to be around.

So that would be my advice and that's why I've, I've been a historically a huge fan of the region.

Well, John, I appreciate your time today and thank you so much for sharing your perspective when it comes to what's happening on the ground in the UAE.

Thank you, Remy.

Thank you very much.