# UAE Crypto Economy Grows 32% to $104.8 Billion as MENA Contracts

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/42007
Published: 2026-10-27T20:35:45.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-27T20:35:45.000Z
Section: Investing

> Services generated $102.3 billion of the UAE total, while Türkiye remained MENA’s largest crypto economy at $144.5 billion.

The United Arab Emirates’ crypto economy grew 32% to $104.8 billion in the 12 months through June 30, 2026, bucking a decline across the wider Middle East and North Africa.

The measurement period ran from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. MENA’s total fell 1.4% to $443.3 billion from $449.6 billion in the previous 12-month period. Excluding the UAE, crypto activity across the region contracted 8.6%.

Türkiye remained MENA’s largest crypto economy at $144.5 billion. The UAE’s total was about 73% of Türkiye’s, putting it second in the region during the period.

Services accounted for $102.3 billion of the UAE’s total, up 29%. Centralized exchange inflows rose 22% to $55 billion, while institutional-platform inflows, including activity through custodians and market makers, climbed 75% to $11.7 billion. Decentralized finance exchange inflows exceeded $31 billion, a 31% increase.

Smaller transfer channels recorded steeper percentage gains. Domestic peer-to-peer payments increased 786%, cross-border peer-to-peer inflows rose 18-fold, and cross-border business payments climbed nearly 400%. These channels remained much smaller than the services sector, despite their faster growth rates.

The total measures cryptocurrency received through services and transfer channels. It includes domestic and cross-border peer-to-peer activity, as well as cross-border transfers from businesses to individuals; it does not measure the value of crypto assets owned by UAE residents. Service activity is assigned to users’ countries based on estimated location from web traffic, rather than to the countries where providers are incorporated.

The UAE’s growth came as global crypto market capitalization fell about 50% over the same period, while worldwide on-chain economic activity declined 1.6%. The figures track different measures: the UAE total counts value received through channels, while the global figures describe market capitalization and on-chain activity.

Henri Arslanian, co-founder of Nine Blocks Capital Management, said of business-to-business stablecoin transactions: “The UAE has become a global hub for such transactions.”