Kazakhstan, the Maldives and Pakistan Have Recently Outlined Ambitions to Position Themselves as Crypto Hubs

input: Kazakhstan, the Maldives and Pakistan have recently outlined ambitions to position themselves as crypto hubs and build out their digital economies.

Several countries, including Kazakhstan, the Maldives and Pakistan, have recently outlined ambitions to position themselves as crypto hubs and build out their digital economies.

However, global crypto firms are more familiar with established financial centers like Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, the U.S. and the U.K., which are actively vying to become the world’s leading crypto hub.

To navigate this competitive landscape, each hub is highlighting its unique strengths and adjusting to counter the weaknesses.

Here’s how five of them are backing their crypto dreams.

Singapore: The crypto hub with parental guidance

Singapore is a renowned financial hub, boasting a AAA credit rating, low corporate tax rates and pro-business regulations. With the advent of digital assets, the Lion City is among the front-runners in the crypto hub race.

Singapore was an early adopter in crypto regulation. Its Payment Services Act (PSA) of 2019, which came into effect in 2020, was one of Asia’s first comprehensive legal frameworks that covered crypto activities.

The PSA uses the term “digital payment token” (DPT) to denote digital representations of value that can be transferred, stored or traded electronically, such as crypto.

At the time of writing, 33 DPT service providers are licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state’s central bank. Casper Johansen, co-founder of Singapore- and Hong Kong-based Spartan Group, noted that license approvals have moved at a measured pace, allowing faster-moving hubs like Dubai to catch up.

“Singapore is more of an institutional financial hub than a retail financial hub,” Johansen said, alluding to the city-state’s restrictions on crypto marketing to retail investors.

The ban on marketing to retail has not affected Singapore’s position as a global crypto hub. Crypto firms choose to set up in Singapore for the low and transparent taxes, strong regulatory framework and rule of law, world-class professional services, ease of living and global connectivity,” Johansen added.

But cracks have emerged recently, particularly around immigration and hiring policy. In late 2024, concerns flared when the CEO of blockchain analytics firm Nansen, Alex Svanevik, shared that he was denied permanent residency. The government has ramped up efforts to prioritize local hiring amid growing political sensitivity over foreign labor.

UAE rolls out the welcome mat for crypto hub status

Unlike other crypto hub contenders, Dubai has a dedicated virtual assets regulator, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Its wide-ranging licensing regime provides clear guidelines, even for NFT platforms, which major economies like the European Union have yet to address. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework currently excludes NFTs.

VARA’s clarity is appealing to companies frustrated by regulatory uncertainty elsewhere. Binance, a borderless exchange with no official head office, has had to rethink that model under global regulatory pressure, and the exchange’s ties to the UAE have been growing.

Richard Teng, former CEO of free zone Abu Dhabi Global Market, took over as the CEO of Binance following Zhao, and recently hinted that UAE is a strong candidate for the exchange’s headquarters, though a decision hasn’t been made yet.

The UAE also provides its own incentives, such as no personal income tax and free zones like the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) offer 0% corporate tax advantages and 100% foreign ownership.

Crypto firms have reported easier access to banking services in Dubai, which is an improvement over the challenges companies say they’ve faced in the U.S. under “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

Hong Kong makes crypto hub push with retail access and staking ETFs

Hong Kong has long acted as a financial gateway to mainland China, where crypto activities like mining and trading remain banned.

Previously, the city had a voluntary licensing regime, when only OSL and HashKey were licensed to serve institutions and professional investors. In Hong Kong, professional investors are legally defined as those with portfolios worth at least 8 million Hong Kong dollars (about $1 million).

It was later updated to the mandatory regime, launched in 2023, which opened the doors to retail.

The shift to mandatory licensing marked a turning point. OSL and HashKey became the first exchanges authorized to serve retail investors, while firms like Bybit and OKX withdrew their applications and exited the market. As of now, 10 platforms are licensed, while 15 have either withdrawn or been rejected.

Hong Kong has made further strides with the listing of Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) ETFs, and recently approved staking within Ether ETFs, which is not yet permitted in the U.S. It has also introduced stablecoin sandboxes under the supervision of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to trial approved digital assets in a controlled environment.

“Sandboxes are an experiment, so too are staking ETFs