Share this article
Payment Processor Invests in Dubai-Based Bitcoin Startup
Payment service provider PayFort is among the investors in a seed funding round announced by Dubai-based bitcoin startup BitOasis.
By Pete Rizzo
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 12:17 p.m. Published May 24, 2016, 12:00 p.m.
Online payment service provider PayFort is among a number of participants to invest in a seed funding round for Dubai-based bitcoin startup BitOasis.
Additional participants included MENA-focused venture capital firm Wamda Capital, early Internet entrepreneur Samih Toukan, serial industry investor Digital Currency Group and a group of unnamed angel investors. The total amount raised was not disclosed.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
With the announcement, BitOasis becomes the first bitcoin startup in the region to announce venture funding, which positions the firm at the forefront of a very nascent sector of the global bitcoin and blockchain industry.
CEO Ola Doudin said that the funding would be used to expand BitOasis and its bitcoin payments and exchange services to new markets throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Doudin said in statements:
"We see great potential in enabling future payment applications, specifically peer-to-peer payments and remittances, that we’re developing our API integrations and developer platform to support."
Doudin said the startup would also seek to strengthen its presence in Dubai, an area that has emerged as the regional leader in bitcoin and blockchain technology.
The funding comes on the heels of the March launch of the Global Blockchain Council (GBC), a 32-member consortium of regional startups, local government entities and the area divisions of international IT giants including Cisco, Microsoft and SAP.
Doudin is also scheduled to appear with partners from this group at Keynote 2016 next week. To be held on 30th May, the Dubai-based conference will see a notable selection of Global Blockchain Council members discuss topics related to the blockchain ecosystem and its potential in the region.
BitOasis image via Facebook
Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in BitOasis.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
LUNC Surges Over 160% in a Week as Do Kwon Sentencing and Token Burns Draw Traders
The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns.
What to know:
- Terra Classic (LUNC) surged 74% to $0.0000072, up 160% in the past week, on exploding trading volume, ahead of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon's sentencing on Dec. 11.
- The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns, with 849 million LUNC destroyed in the past week.
- The token's momentum is also fueled by Binance's pause on LUNC withdrawals ahead of the Terra Chain's v2.18 upgrade, which aims to improve network stability, despite the token remaining volatile.
Top Stories
