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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Totun forty nine here in Dubai, and we have a

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Speaker 2: very special guest, the CEO of Finance Richard Thanks course,

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Speaker 2: just in the job not even six months yet, a

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Speaker 2: lot of history in the Monetary Authority of Singapore, also

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Speaker 2: ABBI Global market and much much more. So we're delighted

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Speaker 2: to welcome you. Guy was just talking about having We'll

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Speaker 2: get to that in a moment. First, any news to

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Speaker 2: share on licenses.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Ronnie. I think I'm very excited to

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Speaker 1: share here breaking it on Bloomberg that we have secured

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Speaker 1: our full license with the Dubai which I said, regulatory

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Speaker 1: authority and then allow us to serve the full story

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Speaker 1: of customers from institutions to high night with individuals to

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Speaker 1: retail customers. We have a much fullest see of products

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Speaker 1: from sport to margin to earn products, and we are

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Speaker 1: looking forward to working very closely with both the regulators

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Speaker 1: here as far as the partners here to bring about

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Speaker 1: the vibrant ecosystem in Dubai. Right, and you know, crypto

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Speaker 1: is a twenty four to seven market where traditional markets

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Speaker 1: are close. People that can still take investment strategy, trading

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Speaker 1: heading strategies that you see after markets and throughout the weekend.

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Speaker 1: So we're very excited to serve the Thebay market and beyond.

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Speaker 2: Well congratulations, Now, I know you were very close to

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Speaker 2: picking a location for headquarters, which you had promised and

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Speaker 2: you had narrow jurisdictions might be the new headquarters.

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Speaker 1: Well, we are still in discussion with several jurisdictions on

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Speaker 1: that front, and you understand that global headquarter issue is

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Speaker 1: we have to go through high a fabr of deliberation.

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Speaker 1: We have instituted our global Board of Directors, so I'm

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Speaker 1: working very closely with them going through the different jurisdiction.

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Speaker 2: Give us a short list is Dubai, there is Abudbi.

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Speaker 1: I would set out the parameters for consideration. I think

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Speaker 1: that's more important for us. So it's very deliberate. As

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, So we have to look at, you know,

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Speaker 1: in terms of jurisdiction, whether they have the regulatory frameworok

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Speaker 1: to cater to our suite of products and services, which

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Speaker 1: is very white. Today we have close t one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty eight million customers globally. We have the largest

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Speaker 1: exchange in the wall, so it's able to cater to

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Speaker 1: that able to cater to us in terms of you know,

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Speaker 1: we are looking at things like double taxation agreement globally

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Speaker 1: whether we can base our key management in those jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: So we are in deep conversation with several jurisdiction on

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Speaker 1: their front. Roughly how many I won't spect it on

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Speaker 1: that front, but as and when we have news will

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Speaker 1: break it.

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Speaker 2: Can you just name the board of directors as you

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Speaker 2: said now the chairman is a career diplomat from Barbados

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Speaker 2: and you have also three of the early employees as

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Speaker 2: you know, members of the board. What about this will

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Speaker 2: give outsider is confidence that you're looking at things like

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Speaker 2: compliance and changing your culture. Well, I have.

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Speaker 1: Set out very clearly at the start of my tenure

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Speaker 1: s CEO that I make three commitments to the global ecosystem.

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Speaker 1: First is continue to be user focused. Users are very

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Speaker 1: important to us. You can see in the first quarter

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Speaker 1: of this year we have added sixty million new users

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Speaker 1: onto the platform, so we stand at close to one

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Speaker 1: hundred idiot million with assets being held by users close

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Speaker 1: to one hundred and twenty billion today, right, so the

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Speaker 1: business continue to grow in a very strong fashion. My

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Speaker 1: second commitment is to working with global regulators to uphole

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Speaker 1: global standards. On the front, Entered is working with both

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Speaker 1: global as well as local partners to support crypto adoption,

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Speaker 1: which is still at the very early stage of development.

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Speaker 2: So the problems are still intact. Bitcoining downward fourteen percent

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Speaker 2: in the last ten sessions roughly. Is this a halving

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Speaker 2: event having obviously imminent?

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean we can't go through site. I mean

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Speaker 1: the crypto industry goes through cycle is to be expected.

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Speaker 1: There's going to be market volatility. It doesn't only impact

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Speaker 1: the asset front. I mean, given the gee political tension,

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Speaker 1: given the interest rate environment that we're seeing, the inflation

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Speaker 1: area environment, crypto industry is impacted like other asset classes.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: So, but we are bullish long term because there is

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Speaker 1: institutions money are coming in something that you have not

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Speaker 1: seen before twenty twenty four, So there is very bullish.

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Speaker 1: We have clarity of rules in many jurisdictions now that

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Speaker 1: allow us to deploy. So the longer term trend is

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Speaker 1: one that's bullish.

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Speaker 2: So that's true. But we have seen a lot of

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Speaker 2: outflows out of some of the usatfs in recent days.

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Speaker 2: And I know you think the cycle is different in

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Speaker 2: terms of where we can see the peak. Have we

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Speaker 2: seen the twenty twenty four peak.

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Speaker 1: Well, I don't have a crystabal, I can preading on

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Speaker 1: that front. But this cycle is indeed unique, right. So

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Speaker 1: normally you see all time high in terms of bigcoin

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Speaker 1: prizes after the having episode, but this time around, because

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Speaker 1: of the liquidity of the user flow from the USATF,

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Speaker 1: we saw the au time high in terms of big

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Speaker 1: coin prisers happening before the Having, right. But as I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: it's bullish because I mean, other than the US, you

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Speaker 1: have Hong Kong recently announcing approval of bitcoin ETF as

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Speaker 1: well as EA ETF right, and you see many other

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Speaker 1: jurisdiction going to come under the bandwagon. A lot of institutions,

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Speaker 1: endowment foundation are coming onstream, and that's going to bring

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Speaker 1: new user class into this new in terms of regulations,

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Speaker 1: clarity of rules are going to give confidence to users

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Speaker 1: into this asset class. So we are still at the beginning.

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Speaker 1: Crypto adoption globally is only about five percent today, so

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Speaker 1: we're very confident that the pace of adoption over the

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Speaker 1: course of the next five years is going to be

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Speaker 1: much faster than last five so you're going to bring

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Speaker 1: a lot more investors into this Essex class.

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Speaker 2: Can I ask when the last time you spoke with

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Speaker 2: CZ was?

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Speaker 1: Well, CZ is in the States now, I think everybody

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Speaker 1: knows that. And he's a controlling shoholder of Binance as

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Speaker 1: he has shaholder strikes on that front, right, we just

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Speaker 1: have to observe the copper governance Ramewook that we are

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Speaker 1: putting place in Binance, which is the border of directors.

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Speaker 1: They are the corporate studards of the company driving this

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Speaker 1: enterprise going forward.

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Speaker 2: What are the plans for him to divest or to

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Speaker 2: take more steps away from any parts of the company.

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Speaker 1: I can't speak on his real I think those questions

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Speaker 1: you should directs him as a shareholder on that front, so.

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Speaker 2: We don't still have a lot of control over decisions.

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Speaker 1: He continuing to be a controlling share of the ALTA campaign.

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Speaker 2: What are you doing in terms of discussions with Nigerian

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Speaker 2: officials in Nigeria government about the employee who's detained Gambarian

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Speaker 2: and the person who's obviously fled and now in Kenya.

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Speaker 1: I think that's I know the interests on that front.

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Speaker 1: We appreciate the interests, but this is a sensitive matter,

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Speaker 1: so we are in conversation with the Nigeria government. Our

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Speaker 1: key priority is to get Ti Grn home safely. Right. So,

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Speaker 1: Tigran is a person of the highest integrity, highest professional

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Speaker 1: I think people that knows him knows that he has worked.

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Speaker 1: He has devoted his entire lifetime, previously with US agencies

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Speaker 1: and now as our head of Financial Crime working with

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Speaker 1: global law enforcement agencies to fight illistit crime and fight

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Speaker 1: financial crimes. We are giving him and his family or

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Speaker 1: the support needed and our key priority our prayers is

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Speaker 1: to bring Tigran home safety as soon as possible.

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Speaker 2: Richard, congratulations on the new license to operate in Dubai

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Speaker 2: and thank you before your time, Richard detained, CEO of

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Speaker 2: Finance