- Two 28-year-old twin heirs from Bahrain’s Kanoo Group successfully pushed for an internal allocation of their 135-year-old family’s fortune into Bitcoin starting in 2020.
- After selling the initial position for a profit, the family office has continued investing in digital assets, now using hedge fund structures for risk management.
- The shift reflects a broader trend among Gulf heirs redirecting capital away from traditional assets and comes as Dubai/UAE emerges as a global crypto hotspot due to licensing clarity and tax neutrality.
Next-generation heirs in the Gulf are redirecting family capital toward crypto and hedge funds, breaking with a legacy focus on real estate and local operating businesses.
Bahrain’s Abdulaziz and Abdulla Kanoo, 28-year-old twins from the Kanoo family, led an internal push in 2020 to allocate their family’s fortune into Bitcoin, per a Tuesday Bloomberg report.
Naturally, with many years of embedded tradition, their proposal met resistance from older members, and even some initial scepticism from investment head James Burke, yet the Kanoo Group committee approved just a small allocation.
The position was later sold for a profit, but the family office has continued investing in digital assets, now using hedge fund structures to manage risk and exposure. The twins also operate a separate digital-asset firm that offers crypto strategies to external clients and other family offices.
Related: Coinbase Seeks Federal Trust Charter to Bolster Regulatory Standing
Dubai is a Hotspot for Crypto Companies
All things considered, Dubai has become a hotspot for the crypto industry, with hundreds of crypto companies now operating in the region.
The UAE ranks third globally in crypto adoption and sits among the top five hubs for investors by several industry tallies. Forecasts from industry analysts place blockchain as the country’s second-largest economic sector within five years if present trends hold.
Generally speaking, the factors that make the UAE attractive for many crypto companies are licensing clarity, tax neutrality, and hard infrastructure, which keep drawing operators into Dubai’s orbit.
Yet Middle Eastern family portfolios remain more conservative than Western peers, with larger weights allocated in liquid instruments and real estate, according to research from HSBC and Campden Wealth.
Related: Bitcoin Makes New All-Time High at $125k, Amid Record ETF Flows
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