BitOasis, a crypto trading platform based in Dubai, has raised $30M from a new round of funding to expand across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
According to a Tuesday release, BitOasis has concluded a $30 million Series B funding round led by Jump Capital of Chicago and Wamda Capital of Dubai.
Wamda previously made an undisclosed investment in BitOasis in 2016, leading a seed funding round. New investors included Alameda Research, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, and Global Founders Capital, as well as current investors Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, and NXMH, a Belgian investment business.
According to BitOasis co-founder and CEO Ola Doudin, the additional capital will enable the crypto exchange expand its position in the MENA area while maintaining regulatory compliance.
“We believe the MENA area has a lot of room for crypto adoption. We also believe that proper legislation, together with investor awareness and education campaigns, will result in widespread acceptance of crypto assets in the region,” Doudin said..
“The funding coming in will equip us with the resources we need to build the largest and most trusted cryptocurrency platform in the region. Expansion beyond the MENA region is also on the cards and will happen in due course.”
According to Doudin, BitOasis also wants to form strategic collaborations with the government to create awareness about cryptocurrency security. The exchange recently teamed up with the Dubai Police Force to raise awareness about fraudulent crypto investment and trading operations.
BitOasis, which was founded in 2015, is one of the region’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. This year, BitOasis experienced tremendous growth, with trade volumes reaching $3 billion and a 200 percent increase in the number of users in the first half of 2021.
As the company prepared to open a licensed crypto exchange in the Middle East, BitOasis gained regulatory permissions from the Abu Dhabi Global Market in May.
