In his capacity as Head of Group Strategy at DIFC Authority, Christian is responsible to develop and continuously evolve the strategic agenda and initiatives of DIFC in line with the UAE’s commitment to innovation and development of future economies.

We start off speaking about the foundations of his experience in the region and work towards the future of fintech, blockchain and crypto within DIFC's ecosystem and the regional market places.

If you are looking to know more about regulations, setting up and getting ahead within the region, this episode is a great listen.

We want to give a special shoutout to our sponsor Blockfinex. Blockfinex offers one of the most competitive trading fees compared to industry leading competitors as well as a quick onboarding process for its users. You can find them at blockfinex.com

Special Guest: Christian Kunz.

On the show we have Kokila Alagh, Founder of Karm Legal and Akshata Namjoshi, Senior Associate at Karm Legal speaking to us.

We discuss:

• How progressive the implementation of regulation has been
• Comparing regulations/initiatives around ADGM, DIFC, ESCA and Central Bank of Bahrain
• The recent public consultation paper issued by ESCA
• How to enter the MENA market from a regulatory and strategic standpoint? What licenses should companies look at? How as a company entering the region should we label ourselves?
• How long it takes companies to graduate from a sandbox?
• International regulatory landscape
• Why Karm Legal are bullish on security tokens?

Nic also asks his usual bunch of futuristic ‘What if’ questions which results in inspired answers and we also diverge into other Fintech topics too.

Special Guests: Akshata Namjoshi and Kokila Alagh.

Ahmed is in one of his favourite places in the world, Shanghai, for the Shanghai Blockchain week. In this episode, he caught up with James Wo, CEO and Founder of Digital Finance Group.

The two delve right in to talk about James’ incredible ventures as well as latest topics in the crypto world including:

• Digital Finance Group’s $80 million venture fund which was raised from traditional capital in Shanghai (02:10)
• Bridging UAE and China: Why are they setting up an exchange in Abu Dhabi and how they got an In Principal Approval from the ADGM (04:50)
• How MENA is a big enough market for multiple exchanges to operate (09:00)
• Proof of work Vs Proof of Stake (12:30)
• Would you choose Bitcoin or Ethereum. Interesting thoughts from James! (15:15)
• Blockchain and crypto ecosystem in China (16:54)

All of the above and more is discussed on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word and hitting that subscribe button!

Special Guest: James Wo.

First up, Ahmed interviews the CEO of the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Richard Teng.

They talk about the 3-year-old financial free trade zone, Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM), and how it differs itself as a financial and fintech hub for the region.

Richard explains the regulatory sandbox that was recently implemented at the ADGM, also known as the RegLab, and how it aims to facilitate innovation through providing a relaxed regulatory environment and a test bed for new fintech business models and start-ups.

Richard further explains the fintech bridges they have built with overseas regulatory sandboxes that are similar in nature with the aim of increasing fintech adoption globally and also helping to close the funding gap between investors and start-ups.

Delving into the blockchain and crypto landscape, Richard discusses how the ADGM are building a comprehensive framework for this new industry comprising of exchanges, ICOs, ETFs and more.

Ahmed then enquires about how traditional capital from family offices and sovereign wealth funds will start to invest and take positions into this new asset class.

Next up, Ahmed is joined by Austin Alexander from the CEO’s office of Kraken and Dan Donny, the CEO of Securrency.

Ahmed gets straight into why both guests view the Abu Dhabi Global Markets as an attractive jurisdiction for blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. It is noteworthy that being able to go into great detail with forward thinking regulators is seen as a unique attribute when compared to other regulatory authorities across the world.

The three then go into the evolution of institutional money flowing into crypto and discussing the potential of when Wall Street money sitting on the side-lines will actually help mature the markets. Dan addresses the challenges that need to be addressed before institutional money flows in.

The concept of self regulated organisations (SROs) are explored too as well as the feasibility of ETFs being potentially a minor factor in bringing in new capital and funds into this space.

Ahmed opens up the discussions on security tokens and how important they will be moving forward as well as exploring their potential use cases in our guests’ respective businesses.

All of the above and more will be on this week’s episode of Encrypted!

If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on iTunes and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!

Special Guests: Austin Alexander, Dan Doney, and Richard Teng.