IOTA announces $100 million Ecosystem DLT Foundation in the UAE

• $IOTA continues strategic expansion with first DLT Foundation in the UAE’
• The $IOTA Foundation will allocate $100 million to the initiative.
• $IOTA price was rallying after the news, up 50% at the time of writing.

$IOTA’s strategic expansion has reached another milestone with the registration of the first DLT foundation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The $IOTA Foundation first announced plans for the foundation in September, highlighting registration with the Abu Dhabi Global as a step that would aid $IOTA’s expansion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The news came as the $IOTA price spiked more than 50% to above $0.26.

$IOTA Foundation allocates $100 million to initiative

Per today’s announcement, an investment of over $100 million has been allocated for the DLT Foundation, with the funding done in $IOTA tokens. These will be vested over the next four years as the foundation looks to nurture innovation and adoption of the $IOTA protocol.

The funding will also go towards community-driven projects and regulatory synergy, the $IOTA Foundation said. Among initiatives to receive greater attention will be those targeted at $IOTA and Shimmer, its staging network.

On what this means for $IOTA’s push to align with regulatory developments, $IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener, said:

“The $IOTA Foundation’s support from ADGM and our partnership with UAE authorities is about more than global expansion. It’s about ushering in a new era of regulatory synergy in the crypto markets. We want to ensure that we take the right steps toward digital autonomy for everyone, and that means making sure a diversity of communities take an active role in shaping the Foundation’s technology and governance.”

$IOTA’s partnership with the ADGM comes as the UAE increasingly becomes an important international crypto destination. As a leading financial center, the country has attracted several blockchain and crypto-related companies.

Today, stablecoin issuer Paxos announced it had secured two in-principle approvals from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). The company is now set to issue stablecoins and provide brokerage and custody services in the ADGM.