Farewell, beach honeymoons and high-end vacations, crypto may become the Maldives' new celebrity soon. The island country known for its blue lagoons and sun-tanned resorts is planning to jump into the blockchain universe with a massive $8.8 billion investment. Palm trees, goodbye; hello digital assets!
Dubai-based family office MBS Global Investments is leading the charge, having invested over five years in a blockchain-financial center that will help the Maldives shake off its dependence on tourism and fisheries. And, come on, it's a very, very ambitious move considering the GDP of the country is around $7 billion. So, yeah, this one's a whopper, way bigger than honeymoon suites.
A Glimpse of the Future - The Maldives International Financial Centre
The investment will be on a joint venture basis with the government of the Maldives, and initial commitments are already in excess of $4 billion. That's nearly half of what they have offered to invest over the next five years, so they are certainly committed to this crypto pipe dream.
Finance Minister Moosa Zameer has provided an interview exclusively where he elaborated on how this project may assist the Maldives in its "largest challenge" of paying back external debt coming due in the next two years. That's to say that if this whole crypto thing will work, this might just be their passport to financial independence.
The ambition is huge. The Maldives International Financial Centre will be a gigantic 830,000 square meters wide and can hold a maximum of 6,500 people. And let's not forget the 16,000 new jobs it's expected to create—talk about making a destination country out of a tourist paradise!
MBS Global Investments, responsible for a cool $14 billion in assets, is the office of Qatari royal Sheikh Nayef bin Eid Al Thani. The initiative is one of the Maldives' biggest forays into the world of crypto and blockchain, and a success would revamp the economic profile of the island nation.
And so, while the Maldives may remain a dream place forever, it appears it's all ready to become a hub for blockchain as well. Time to book a ticket both to the beach and the future of crypto, it seems!
HODL Team
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