Arabian Bourse (ABX), which received In-principal Approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as a crypto asset exchange and custodian, today announced that it received a double digit multi-million dollar investment from HBK-GoChain. This announcement completes a significant milestone in the roadmap for the creation of a fully regulated, first of its kind crypto asset exchange and custodian that focuses on global institutional and retail traders.
This strong partnership brings together a digital asset market place, a blockchain technology platform and strategic investment. The ABX and HBK-GoChain ecosystem will ultimately act as a bridge, integrating the region’s digital assets activity with other major digital asset centres around the world.
ABX is implementing the GMEX-powered hybrid centralised & blockchain distributed ledger technology suite, which is deployed and trusted by international regulated financial institutions. With a goal to be the leading institutional grade crypto assets exchange and custodian in the region, ABX is building a fully integrated ecosystem with well experienced promoters to become the preferred venue for crypto assets listing, trading and associated digital custody, depository and data services.
GoChain was founded in 2017 to build impactful technology for the betterment of humanity. In October 2019, GoChain entered into a joint venture partnership with HBK Department of Projects to form HBK-GoChain. At its core HBK-GoChain is a blockchain company that specialises in the supply chain, e-government, Central Bank Digital Currencies, payments and financial services. Its network is the fastest web3-based protocol and client in the world at 1,300 transactions per second. Since its inception GoChain has been one of the most active Blockchain companies in terms of software development and partnerships with over 40 in the past 18 months.
The Company is headed by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan as the Chairman and Anwar Hussein as the Board Member. His Highness is also the Chairman of HBK Department of Projects which has 30 years of experience in providing consulting engineering services for a large number of projects in the MENA region, Asia-Pacific region, and the Indian Sub-continent. HBK provides a total investment package from mass housing, infrastructure, energy, health, education, and fintech amongst others. Anwar Hussein has 30-year track record as a successful entrepreneur within the renewable energy industry in Africa and MENA, the Subcontinent and the rest of Asia.
His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, Chairman of HBK-GoChain, commented, “In line with the vision of UAE and its leaders we realised the importance of adopting next generation technologies like blockchain and digital assets. To be actively involved in these businesses and become the industry leader we invested in GoChain and followed up by investing in Arabian Bourse. These investments are very strategic to our group and we believe that Arabian Bourse with its well experienced founders is best placed to be our partners. As a definitive goal we would like to replicate this business model in other parts of the world.”
Jason Dekker, Co-founder and CEO of HBK-GoChain, who has seen 4 exits and managed a $300 million dollar hedge fund, said “The digital asset world with its underlying Blockchain technology is seeing remarkable growth. The largely unregulated marketplace and its associated custody system need exchanges like Arabian Bourse which offer a fully regulated, robust and transparent marketplace. Integrating HBK-GoChain with Arabian Bourse delivers a complete eco-system. Having closely watched the development of crypto exchanges on a global scale we feel very confident about the success of Arabian Bourse supported by its exceptional management and operational expertise.”
Arshad Khan, Co-founder and CEO of Arabian Bourse said, “The strategic investment and partnership with HBK-GoChain is a major step in the development of Arabian Bourse. We are privileged to partner with such reputable regional and global leaders. HBK Group, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, has emerged as one of the fastest growing infrastructure businesses in the region and GoChain is one of the most active blockchain companies in the world. Partnering with such institutions emphasises our commitment towards the development of the regional crypto asset industry.”
Hirander Misra, Vice Chairman of the Arabian Bourse and Chairman of GMEX Group, said, “As a founding shareholder of Arabian Bourse, we are very excited about HBK-GoChain joining us and Arshad Khan as a strategic investor. This creates a trusted digital assets market infrastructure offering encompassing a regulated exchange and safe custody, which is both strong regionally and well positioned globally to attract institutional and retail traders.”