Cities and nations across the globe are competing to crown themselves the capital of blockchain, crypto, or Web3. History tells us that iconic business hubs, such as Silicon Valley for technology or Hollywood for entertainment, usually emerge organically when talent, capital, and innovation cluster together. Only later do they benefit from institutional support, with governments and professional bodies stepping in to sustain momentum.

But the velocity of Web3 makes this model outdated. The industry evolves so quickly that leaving growth to chance is a gamble no country can afford. To capture the advantages of becoming a global digital asset hub, markets need deliberate and coordinated support from top-down policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders. Without this, opportunities slip away to jurisdictions that act faster.

The crypto world is indeed moving at light speed. In the United States, regulators have advanced sweeping initiatives such as SEC’s “Project Crypto” and the CFTC’s “Crypto Sprint,” aiming to modernize oversight of digital assets and integrate them more tightly with traditional finance. Across the Atlantic, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework has become a comprehensive regulatory baseline for digital asset markets. In Southeast Asia, countries like Vietnam are piloting new crypto legislation intended to balance innovation and protection in a once more restrictive environment. In other words: jurisdictions are no longer passive observers. They’re shaping the rules of the game.

Among the contenders, Innovation City is beginning to build notable momentum. With deliberate design and strong backing, it has the potential to move faster than other hubs.

Innovation City (formerly RAK Digital Assets Oasis) in Ras Al Khaimah represents the UAE’s bet on creating a next-generation Web3 zone. It brands itself as “the Free Zone of the Future,” but its value is more than marketing. It offers streamlined licensing, integrated banking setup, and a government-supported infrastructure that lowers the friction for startups and enterprises to enter the market. It’s a deliberate piece of the UAE’s national innovation strategy, intended to diversify the economy and anchor the digital sector.

Innovation City is part of UAE’s broader national approach toward innovation in digital assets. For example, Dubai’s Land Department (DLD) has adopted blockchain-based tokenization of real estate, positioning itself as the first real estate registry in the Middle East to do so. In the payments, Dubai’s Department of Finance has partnered with Crypto.com to allow cryptocurrency payments for certain government services, a tangible step toward the city’s longer-term ambition of achieving 90% cashless transactions by 2026. The government has already used blockchain to digitize document workflows and launched the Global Blockchain Council to coordinate cross-sector initiatives.

While Innovation City may be the pinnacle of these efforts, the UAE does not stand alone, counting on HashKey as a strategic partner. Before diving into HashKey’s role, it’s worth pausing on why HashKey is such a strong fit in this environment.

HashKey is already considered one of Asia’s most trusted digital asset groups, known for high standards in compliance, governance, and institutional operations. HashKey MENA obtained In-Principle Approval from Dubai’s VARA in 2024, and in 2025 secured a full Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license, allowing it to operate as both exchange and broker-dealer in the UAE. The partnership with Innovation City builds directly on that regulatory foundation, marrying private-sector sophistication with public-sector structure.

The Four Pillars of Innovation CIty

The HashKey–Innovation City partnership is built around four pillars that together create a complete financial-grade ecosystem. It begins at the institutional level, where licensed over-the-counter (OTC) services give family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and global institutions the same discretion and depth they expect in traditional finance. Much like block trades in equities, these OTC channels provide the confidentiality and liquidity needed to execute at scale without destabilizing the market.

From there, the framework opens outward to retail participants. By offering a transparent order-book trading venue, the partnership ensures that individuals can access fair pricing and market depth rather than being relegated to opaque or fragmented venues. This democratization of market access is critical: retail engagement sustains liquidity and broadens participation, which in turn reinforces institutional confidence.

What connects these layers is infrastructure. Trusted fiat rails, built with Standard Chartered, close the gap between conventional banking and digital assets. Currency conversion ceases to be a friction point, giving both enterprises and consumers a reliable bridge between two worlds. And with smooth AED and USD on- and off-ramps, capital can flow in and out with the kind of efficiency that seasoned investors require but early-stage founders also depend on to keep businesses running.

Seen together, the four pillars aren’t discrete features; they are interlocking mechanisms. OTC liquidity attracts institutions, retail access fosters breadth, fiat rails provide stability, and seamless ramps guarantee mobility. It is this interplay that makes the partnership a growth engine. Other markets have shown that when all these elements align, ecosystems don’t just function, they scale. Bringing that tested formula into a greenfield environment like the UAE, with regulation already in place, has the potential to accelerate development at a pace few jurisdictions can match.

By weaving these elements together, HashKey and Innovation City are not just building a trading platform: they are curating the operating system for a new digital hub. They aim to draw two crucial audiences: early-stage founders who want to build in a regulated yet ambitious environment, and established firms seeking compliant expansion into new geographies. In doing so, they create a virtuous cycle: more participants, more volume, and elevated market standards.

Just as the world has reaped the rewards of Silicon Valley’s breakthroughs in technology and Hollywood’s storytelling on screen, so too will it benefit from the innovations born in a purpose-built Web3 hub. If Innovation City fulfills its promise, the products and platforms developed there won’t just serve local markets: they will ripple outward, shaping global standards for how digital assets are built, traded, and trusted. The partnership between HashKey and Innovation City isn’t only about anchoring the UAE as a hub; it’s about creating Web3 infrastructure whose impact will be felt far beyond Ras Al Khaimah.