Qatari royal family enters crypto – $8.8 billion to start

Sheikh Nayef bin Eid Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, through his family office and MBS Global Investments, is set to invest over $8.8 billion in a big blockchain and digital asset project in the Maldives. This huge investment will happen over the next five years and aims to help diversify the Maldives’ economy, which currently relies mostly on tourism and fishing. It will also assist the country in managing its external debt.

To put things into perspective, this investment is even larger than the Maldives’ entire GDP for 2023, which is around $7 billion, according to the Financial Times. The project plans to build a major international financial center and create thousands of new jobs. It’s a big step for the Maldives as it moves towards embracing digital finance and attracting global investors, even though cryptocurrency is still a small part of the country’s economy right now.