$240 Billion UAE Sovereign Wealth Fund To Invest In Crypto

Mubadala Investment Company, a state-owned sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, is looking to invest in the crypto ecosystem.

In an interview with CNBC, CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak revealed that he was no longer a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, and that the industry was officially “real.”

“First of all, I think it’s real. I think this is a business that had what, $200 billion worth of crypto value two years ago and it’s $2.5 trillion today, and growing. So I think while many people are skeptics, I do not fall in that category. I think now I see it as real.

Now I think the regulatory environment that isn’t there yet in its final form, and will have to be there at some point, will have to come in and will help transition this asset class into something new.”

While Al Mubarak didn’t reveal specific investments, he did say that the fund was looking at or investing in the “ecosystem around crypto” including blockchain technology and energy.

Mubadala Investment Company holds $243 billion in assets with a wide range of holdings including petroleum, software, and biotechnology.

The entrance of sovereign wealth funds into the crypto markets has been named as one of the big bullish catalysts to potentially take the space to the next level. In November, the Financial Times reported that global crypto exchange Binance was also in talks with sovereign wealth funds in regards to investing in digital assets.

Zhao said that "the ticket size involved will not be small . . . it won't be a short process," according to the FT report.

Zhao said holding funds from government entities may ultimately be a risk, and this was something the exchange was still working out.

"But it may also tie us to specific countries . . . which we want to be slightly careful with," he said.