UAE fund ploughs $2bn into Binance crypto exchange

DUBAI: United Arab Emirates-based fund MGX has invested $2 billion to take a minority stake in cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the two sides said, calling it the biggest investment into a crypto company.

MGX, headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of the UAE’s president, also becomes Binance’s first institutional investor. The transaction, made in stablecoin -- a cryptocurrency pegged to real-world assets -- marks the largest investment ever paid in crypto, they said on Wednesday.

“Our goal is to build a more inclusive and sustainable ecosystem, with a strong focus on compliance, security and user protection,” Binance CEO Richard Teng said in a joint statement. State-backed MGX is also involved in Stargate, the United States’ major artificial intelligence infrastructure project, and a giant AI data centre to be built in France at a cost of up to 50 billion euros ($54 billion).