To buy bitcoin in the UAE, you use a VARA-licensed exchange in Dubai, or an SCA-registered provider in the other emirates. Verify your identity, fund the account in dirhams, then place the order. This guide covers the rules, the steps, the fees and the tax.
Andreessen Horowitz dropped the word crypto from its flagship blockchain fund on October 22, renaming it a16z Frontier and widening its mandate to AI and robotics. The firm says it will keep backing crypto startups, five months after calling its latest fund fully dedicated to them.
Robinhood has cleared a regulator to operate in Dubai, but its products will not reach customers in the Middle East until 2027, a year after rivals Kraken and Bybit won their own approvals.
Mining bitcoin only pays under the right conditions: cheap power and an efficient machine. Here is the math behind profit in 2026, with a worked example, the break-even electricity price, and what the next halving changes.
Bitcoin Core will patch and reveal vulnerabilities that a simple AI prompt can surface as soon as a fix is ready, ending the months-long secrecy it once applied to low and medium severity flaws. Developer Antoine Poinsot said the old embargo delayed fixes without protecting users.
A spot bitcoin ETF and bitcoin itself track the same price, but they are not the same thing. One is a fund share you cannot spend or withdraw. The other is an asset you control outright. Here is how the two compare on fees, custody, trading and tax.
HSBC has launched RedCoin, a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, inside its PayMe app for 3.3 million users. The coin is licensed by the HKMA and went live with about HKD 80 million in circulation, but its first independent reserve attestation is not due until after the fourth quarter of 2026.
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Read from the Bitcoin network itself, from companies’ own SEC filings and from the US Treasury’s sanctions list. No price here and no forecasts: the live price is on our bitcoin price page. Free to quote with credit.
Oct 27–29, 2026
Madrid, Spain
Nov 3–6, 2026
Mumbai, India
Ethereum Foundation’s developer conference
Nov 15–17, 2026
London, United Kingdom
Dec 7–8, 2026
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Apr 21–22, 2027
Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE
May 4–6, 2027
Miami, USA
a16z says the rename is an expansion of its mandate, not a retreat from crypto, and that it will keep investing in and advocating for the asset class.
Our read: The crypto team and crypto targets remain, but the firm pulled the word from the fund that made its name, reversed a May statement that the fund was 100 percent dedicated to crypto, and is losing Ali Yahya, its first crypto hire. No fund size was broken out for crypto under the Frontier name.
Robinhood says it has won authorization across all 10 DFSA asset classes, including crypto trading and custody, to build its Middle East retail platform from the DIFC.
Our read: The DFSA authorization is confirmed on the public register and in Robinhood's own statement, but no product is live, no launch date, token list or pricing has been disclosed, the register's listed permissions read narrower than the company's description, and rivals Kraken and Bybit already hold Dubai approvals.
Fixing and disclosing easily found bugs at once, instead of embargoing them, protects Bitcoin users better now that AI can rediscover flaws on its own.
Our read: The reasoning is public and comes from the maintainers who run the process, and the policy is documented on Bitcoin Core's own site. What is missing is any track record: the rule is days old, no advisory has shipped under it yet, and faster releases mean less testing time, a tradeoff the project itself does not measure.
HSBC has launched Hong Kong's first retail bank stablecoin, putting a regulated digital Hong Kong dollar in front of 3.3 million PayMe users.
Our read: The coin is live on PayMe under HKMA licence FRS02 and HSBC publishes daily circulation, but the first independent reserve attestation is not due until after the fourth quarter of 2026, no public blockchain or contract address has been disclosed, and circulation sits near HKD 80 million, a fraction of PayMe's user base.
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Mining bitcoin only pays under the right conditions: cheap power and an efficient machine. Here is the math behind profit in 2026, with a worked example, the break-even electricity price, and what the next halving changes.
Bitcoin Core will patch and reveal vulnerabilities that a simple AI prompt can surface as soon as a fix is ready, ending the months-long secrecy it once applied to low and medium severity flaws. Developer Antoine Poinsot said the old embargo delayed fixes without protecting users.
Bitcoin's supply is capped at 21 million, and about 20.1 million already exist. New coins slow with every halving until the reward hits zero around 2140. The final total stops just short of 21 million, and miners then live on fees alone.
Andreessen Horowitz dropped the word crypto from its flagship blockchain fund on October 22, renaming it a16z Frontier and widening its mandate to AI and robotics. The firm says it will keep backing crypto startups, five months after calling its latest fund fully dedicated to them.
Robinhood has cleared a regulator to operate in Dubai, but its products will not reach customers in the Middle East until 2027, a year after rivals Kraken and Bybit won their own approvals.
HSBC has launched RedCoin, a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, inside its PayMe app for 3.3 million users. The coin is licensed by the HKMA and went live with about HKD 80 million in circulation, but its first independent reserve attestation is not due until after the fourth quarter of 2026.
Five Ethereum researchers filed a draft consensus design on October 21 that aims to cut the time a transaction takes to become final, from about 16 minutes to roughly four. The proposal, EIP-8453, is only seeking a number to enter the formal upgrade process.
A token on another chain backed one-for-one by bitcoin held elsewhere. Just over one per cent of all bitcoin is wrapped. The mechanics, the live supply figures, and what the WBTC custody fight showed about the risk.
Zero-knowledge computing project Cysic suspended its cross-chain bridge on October 17 after an attacker minted 10 million CYS tokens and cashed part of the supply out for about 306 ETH. The foundation says user wallets and its mainnet were untouched.
These listed firms exist mainly to buy and hold bitcoin, giving investors exposure through an ordinary stock. Strategy alone holds more than 848,000 coins. The model runs on a share-price premium, and when that premium fades the machine can run in reverse.
Zcash developers merged a proposal setting NU7's mainnet activation height at block 3,543,405, pointing to around November 5 for a switch to 25-second blocks. The date is an estimate tied to the block rate, not a fixed calendar event.
The bank's 2027 forecasts put bitcoin's base-case return at about 10 percent a year, ahead of stocks, bonds and gold. The same report calls it speculative and gives it no strategic role in a portfolio.