Cryptocurrency
ICO
UAE’s Burj Khalifa Developers Creating Their Own ICO
United Arab Emirate property development giant The Emaar Group, the team behind the remarkable Burj Khalifa, is prepared to launch their first ICO later this year. At 825 meters in height, the Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building by almost 2oo meters, with the Shanghai Tower in a distant second place. We mention this because the Khalifa is an impressive item in Emaar Group’s CV, one which lends legitimacy to what would otherwise be “just another ICO”.
Emaar hasn’t been exhaustive in its early description of the late-2019 ICO. So far, we know that the token will be launched on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC-20 standard) and it will be used in Emaar properties’ referral and loyalty programs. The program is being launched by Swiss blockchain company Lykke AG. Finally, the ICO will launch in Europe for investors interested in the ongoing Dubai property and wealth boom. Those who buy Ethereum now can hope to take part this winter.
This is likely to affect many different businesses and properties in the Emaar portfolio. In addition to the Burj Khalifa, the developer owns numerous entertainment centers, shopping malls, retail outlets, and online shopping businesses. Emaar says that the new token will be available to a billion Westerners and that the crowd sale will remain open for a full year after the token launches. Emaar hasn’t specified how much money it wishes to raise through the ICO.
We’ve seen countless ICOs from unfamiliar players in recent years, and well more than half of these proved to be scams or non-starters. We’re already more interested in the Emaar ICO because Emaar is the business with the largest market capitalization in all of the Middle East and North African region (MENA). In addition to this, Emaar revenues jumped by a remarkable 37% in 2018 (to £5.3 billion), and their total brand value by 39% (by £2.1 billion).
This makes Emaar one of the most valuable brands in the world, proving once and for all that the UAE and Dubai are very much leaders on the world stage for the consumer economy. It’s only natural that Emaar would launch an ICO, as Dubai and the UAE have been almost cartoonishly forward thinking in their recent history, and because both have expressed the intention to increase blockchain investment and development within their borders.
The ICO is also great news for Ethereum which, despite its leadership in the blockchain space, has seen headlines dominated by controversy regarding network development and scaling difficulty. By bringing countless Emaar assets onto the blockchain, and potentially millions of customers in the process, Ethereum will gain a tremendous amount of real-world adoption and traffic. If the Emaar token is successful, Ethereum could represent a new retail technology infrastructure that unites the East and West. Sure sounds like the stuff we used to hear promised of Ethereum in its early days, doesn’t it?
Of course, details about the Emaar/Lykke AG ICO are few but this announcement was made only a few days before press time. We expect many more details to be forthcoming, and for this to be one of the biggest ICOs of 2019 and 2020.
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates continue to blossom into a new kind of world power. Built on oil riches and a flair for status-driven-consumerism, Dubai is the perfect place to launch this sort of utility token. It may or may not prove to be a huge success but you can bet that with Emaar and Ethereum involved, whatever happens will feature a great deal.
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