21Shares Lists the First Physically Backed Bitcoin ETP on Nasdaq Dubai

Swiss-based 21.co last month raised $25 million in a funding round that valued it at $2 billion, which it said made it "Switzerland's largest crypto unicorn".

The crypto market has suffered a rout that has forced some of its biggest players to lay off thousands of employees to cut costs.

However, Sherif El-Haddad, appointed 21Shares head of Middle East in August, was upbeat, saying cryptocurrencies were "fast becoming the asset of the future for investors and wealth managers around the world".

The Middle East and North Africa is the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency region, where the volume of crypto received jumped 48% in the year to June, blockchain researcher Chainalysis said in a report last week.

Hany Rashwan, CEO and co-founder of 21Shares, said in the statement, “the company will continue to support the Middle East's ambitions to become a global crypto hub".