Russians Have Been Selling Their Bitcoins In Order To Buy Real Estate In Dubai

There has been a recent increase in real estate transactions in Dubai, as many Russians are looking for a safe place to invest their money.
In the previous 24 hours, over $1 billion was moved out of Coinbase.
Users on opensea and metamask blocked based on us sanctions list.

Some Russians have been selling bitcoins to buy real estate in Dubai. Dubai is not in the United States or the European Union, so they are not following the economic sanctions against Russia.

Reuters reports that cryptocurrency exchanges in Dubai have been receiving requests to sell large amounts of Bitcoin. The sellers are using the funds to buy real estate and physical cash in Dubai.

There has been a recent spike in mortgages for real estate in Dubai, and also a rise in the number of gifts for real estate (which are taxed less).

Source: Dubai real estate transactions

Source: Dubai real estate transactions

The Swiss policy of neutrality means that the country will not get involved in any political or armed conflicts between other regions. We saw this during World War 1 and World War 2.

However, recently the Swiss government announced that it is breaking its neutrality and joining the EU economic sanctions on Russia. This change may mean that Russian oligarchs will no longer feel safe keeping their digital assets in Switzerland.

According to a news article published by Reuters, a cryptocurrency firm (name is withheld) has received instructions from Swiss brokers to sell billions of dollars in BTC. There was increasing worry that Switzerland would legalize cryptocurrencies.

“We’ve had like five or six in the past two weeks. None of them have come off yet – they’ve sort of fallen over at the last minute, which is not rare – but we’ve never had this much interest.

“We have one guy – I don’t know who he is, but he came through a broker – and they’re like, ‘we want to sell 125,000 bitcoin’. And I’m like, ‘what? That’s $6 billion guys’. And they’re like, ‘yeah, we’re going to send it to a company in Australia’,”

Source: reuters

Recently, a number of large bitcoin transactions worth over $1 billion were made.

Dubai Cryptocurrency Regulations, SCA and VARA

The Securities and Commodities Authority of the United Arab Emirates (SCA) has yet to write cryptocurrency rules. Residents of Dubai will need to register with the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) before participating in cryptocurrencies, such as firms.

On 11 Match 2022, over $1 billion was transferred out of Coinbase.

Source: whale-alert

Source: whale-alert

Source: whale-alert

Some wealthy Russians may try to find ways to keep their money safe. If they can’t buy property in the real world, they may start buying property in virtual worlds. Binance, a crypto exchange, applied for a license in Dubai World Trade Centre so that Russians will seek refuge there.