Institutional participation in the crypto market across the MENA region, especially in the UAE, accelerated sharply in 2025 as digital assets moved from exploratory exposure to strategic allocation within regional wealth portfolios.
According to multiple industry reports, 71 percent of ultra-high-net-worth families in the UAE believe they should make strategic allocations to digital assets, above the global average of 69 percent, and 39 percent of HNWIs already hold crypto, signaling increasing comfort with digital asset exposure.
Institutional and high-value participation scales materially
In its latest annual report, BitOasis confirms this shift, revealing that institutional and high-value participation scaled materially, with VIP and institutional clients contributing over 66 percent of total crypto trading volumes, supported by a 66 percent year-on-year increase in high-value traders and HNWIs, and 100 percent growth in corporate and treasury clients across MENA.
“2025 marked a defining year for digital assets globally. Total market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion for the first time, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high, supported by meaningful policy progress in the United States and other major markets,” said Ola Doudin, Co-Founder and CEO of BitOasis.
In parallel, the UAE and Bahrain emerged as global standard-bearers for progressive, enabling regulation, she added.
Doudin added, “Platform data shows a clear shift in behaviour, with investors engaging more deliberately and applying the same discipline and portfolio rigour they would to traditional asset classes.”
Read: 6 key trends shaping the global crypto landscape in 2026
Market see shift from speculation to discipline
Retail investor data points to a clear shift from speculation to discipline in MENA cr, the report said. Investor behavior reflected disciplined participation, with users holding an average of three tokens per portfolio, led by BTC as the most-held and most-traded blue-chip asset, while DOGE emerged as the most-traded token overall and BTC-AED as the most active trading pair.
Market engagement remained structured and time-bound, with peak trading activity observed on Mondays, particularly around 18:00 GST, indicating deliberate participation aligned with global market hours rather than speculative, round-the-clock trading.
The report added that growth trends in 2025 highlighted selective risk-taking, with XRP recording the highest growth in trading activity irrespective of valuation, alongside a mature user base with an average customer age of 39 years, pointing to experienced investors driving market participation.
Looking ahead to the significant wealth transfer underway in the region, Doudin added: “With GCC wealth projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2027, we are entering a defining decade for capital formation in the region. Our priority is to build resilient, regulation-first infrastructure that can support this transition at scale.”
