Will Coinbase Move Headquarters to UAE?

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, visited the United Arab Emirates with his team this week. Brian Armstrong will be speaking at the Dubai Fintech Summit and will also hold a series of talks with key figures from the crypto industry, including politicians, in Dubai.

While the regulatory pressure on the US-based crypto company is increasing day by day, according to recent rumors, it is said that Coinbase is looking for a new center outside the USA. A concrete example of this was the establishment of the Bermuda-based futures crypto exchange, which was trying to prove its presence in the foreign market. Finally, with the visit of the Coinbase CEO to the UAE, the opinion that the stock market could establish a center in Dubai, depending on the global expansion, started to gain weight. The UAE is taking concrete steps to become a preferred hub for Web3 innovation, headquartered in Dubai. Nearly 500 new startups continue their activities in the region, which has adopted a crypto-friendly approach in recent years.

Nana Murugesan, Vice President of International and Business Development at Coinbase, wrote for the Coinbase Blog that the UAE has the potential to become a strategic hub that can enable Coinbase to achieve its goals globally. Murugesan also thinks that the UAE acts as a bridge between Asia and Europe, the two regions that the stock market focuses on.

However, suffering from a lack of clarity in crypto in the US, Coinbase executives see the industry-friendly and clear rules of crypto regulations as a huge advantage in the UAE, which has significant capital markets potential. Believing that the UAE region can become a hub for the Web3 space, Coinbase is preparing to take serious steps to gain a foothold in the Middle East, according to the statements made. However, it can be seen as a long process for the stock market to move its headquarters to the UAE or another region and leave the USA completely. Coinbase is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Therefore, it may take many years for the crypto company to relocate its headquarters to a different region as it is subject to US law. However, within the framework of its global growth targets, Coinbase may adopt a growth approach in other jurisdictions by reducing its operations in the USA.

Recent developments regarding the crypto company have a lawsuit filed against the US SEC to respond to a request for crypto regulations. As part of this lawsuit, the SEC must give a positive or negative response in the coming days. In addition, Coinbase lawyers recently met with the lawyers of Ripple, the company that the SEC filed a lawsuit against, and evaluated the latest situation.