Investors in Saudi Arabia made gains of more than US$350 million in 2023, according to industry data.
Analysis from blockchain firm Chainalysis shows that Saudi Arabia was the leading country in the Mena region for crypto investing.
It was followed by the UAE which pulled in around $204 million in 2023 from crypto investments.
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Together the two countries account for the majority of the region’s returns from crypto investments.
They are also the only two countries from the region to make the top 50 of countries globally in the Chainalysis research.
However, the combined $550 million made in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is just a fraction of the $37.6 billion of crypto gains globally in 2023 which also marks a sharp turnaround from the $127.1 billion in losses recorded in the previous year.
The gains were also dominated by bitcoin, globally and regionally. In the UAE bitcoin accounted for around 70% of the total crypto returns.