Dubai-based crypto exchange BitOasis raised a round of funding from investors including Indian digital-asset platform CoinDCX.

Terms of the deal and valuation weren’t disclosed. Existing investors Wamda Capital and Jump Capital also participated in the round, the company said.

Launched in 2016, BitOasis supports countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Between mid-2021 and mid-2022, the Middle East and North Africa region was the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency market, according to researcher Chainalysis. Back in 2021, BitOasis raised $30 million in funding, according to the company.

BitOasis earlier this year said it received the first of Dubai’s “minimum viable product operational licenses,” allowing it to offer broker-dealer services for digital assets to qualified investors. The company was subsequently reprimanded by Dubai in July for failing to meet mandated conditions set forth by the local regulator.

CoinDCX became India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn in 2021 after raising about $90 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion from investors led by Meta Platforms Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group. The company said at the time it was planning to use the investment to grow its team. Policy makers in India continue to debate the status of digital currencies in the country, and its central bank recently said it has “major concerns” about private virtual currencies.

(Corrects fifth paragraph to show that CoinDCX became India’s first crypto unicorn in 2021.)

Author: Olga Kharif, Sidhartha Shukla and Ben Bartenstein