UAE accelerates toward 2026 with unmatched financial and digital strength

22/12/2025 05:21 AST

The UAE closed 2025 in a position of exceptional financial strength, cementing its role as one of the most influential economic hubs across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia - and increasingly as a global financial centre. Dubai and Abu Dhabi outperformed many international markets on the back of diversified economic activity, deepening institutional maturity, regulatory clarity, and an expanding fintech and digital assets ecosystem.

While macroeconomic volatility, fluctuating oil prices, and tightening global liquidity cycles pressured several regional economies, the UAE demonstrated resilience powered by non-oil growth, strong corporate earnings, and consistent foreign capital inflows. As global investors sought stability, the UAE emerged as both a safe haven and an innovation engine - setting a powerful trajectory for 2026.

Michael Ayres, CEO, Rostro Group, said: "2025 proved to be a defining year in the UAE's evolution into a global financial powerhouse. Sustained investment in market infrastructure, digital connectivity and institutional frameworks are positioning Dubai and Abu Dhabi firmly alongside the world's leading financial centres. What sets the UAE apart is not just the pace of development, but the depth of regulatory maturity and its clear focus on long-term institutional capital rather than short-term flows. This is why increasing numbers of global hedge funds, banks and fintech firms are choosing the UAE as their base.

Ayres, further added: "The country offers a rare combination of progressive regulation, capital efficiency and direct access to both developed and high-growth markets.

By 2026, the UAE's fintech ecosystem is expected to further reshape market participation across Mena and beyond. Clear licensing pathways, and the ability for international firms to scale rapidly under a single regulatory framework, are creating one of the world's most competitive environments for financial innovation. While Rostro operates globally, Dubai sits at the core of our strategy. From here, we are accelerating our mission to blend traditional finance with digital innovation, broaden access to global markets, and shape the future of trading and investing. As we look toward 2026, we see the UAE as a central growth engine for Rostro's next phase of expansion across institutional liquidity, multi-asset trading and digital finance."

In 2025, the UAE solidified its position as the region's most resilient and increasingly global financial hub. Mohanad Yakout, Senior Market Analyst for the MENA region, Scope Markets, said: "While oil-dependent markets across the Gulf faced pressure from declining crude prices, Dubai and Abu Dhabi outperformed on the strength of diversified economies and strong non-oil corporate earnings. Global investors rotated toward UAE equities as safe, stable alternatives to more volatile regional markets. This shift marked a broader structural advantage: the UAE's low oil breakeven point, pro-business regulation, and consistent capital inflows accelerated its transition from regional player to globally recognized financial powerhouse."

The UAE is attracting hedge funds, international banks, and fintech firms seeking a stable base for 2025-26. Its competitive tax environment, deep talent pool, advanced infrastructure, and transparent, innovation-friendly regulatory landscape provide operational certainty and support scalable growth.

Yakout added: "The UAE's fintech ecosystem is set to reshape market participation in 2026 through broader adoption of digital financial services, increased automation across wealth and asset management, and the integration of AI-powered decision-making tools. The forthcoming digital dirham will further enhance payment efficiency, enable programmable financial transactions, and reduce settlement friction, making participation easier for both retail and institutional users.

"These advancements are strengthened by the UAE's regulatory progress. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market, and the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) together provide a comprehensive and globally aligned financial governance systems. This structure fosters innovation while ensuring strong market integrity, firmly positioning the UAE among the world's leading financial centres."

The UAE right now is one of the most exciting financial environments on the planet. You have sovereign wealth capital moving with intent, regulators who understand how to build future markets, and a government that treats technology as a national advantage. That combination creates a momentum you rarely see, and it is the exact environment where a fund like Hashgraph Ventures Manager can thrive.

"We set out to build a Web3 and AI focused fund in a place that genuinely wants to lead, not follow, and Abu Dhabi is doing exactly that. Web3 and AI are now core layers of the UAE's economic evolution. They sit beside energy, finance, and logistics as strategic pillars, and the shift happening in 2026 is that these technologies have moved from concept to execution. Real infrastructure is being built, real users are entering, and real value is showing up inside regulated frameworks," said Dara Campbell, Senior Executive Officer, Hashgraph Ventures Manager Ltd. (HVM).

"The early stage trends are becoming clear. Tokenized assets are moving into mainstream capital markets, AI native applications are redefining how companies are built, Web3 rails are spinning up real world revenue, and digital identity is becoming the backbone of cross border commerce. These are not future theories. They are live opportunities. Our deployment strategy aligns with this momentum. We want to back founders who can scale inside a region that rewards speed, credibility, and substance. The UAE gives you all three. It has the capital, the regulatory clarity, and the appetite to champion new categories, and that makes it the perfect home for Hashgraph Ventures as we support the next wave of global builders," Campbell added.

The UAE enters 2026 with a unique blend of financial resilience, regulatory clarity, and technological ambition that few markets can match. Global capital is expanding its footprint, digital assets and AI are shifting from experimentation to real-world scale, and the country's institutions are delivering a framework that rewards innovation with stability.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi now stand at the centre of a rapidly evolving financial ecosystem - one that is shaping new global standards in market participation, institutional growth, and digital economic transformation. The momentum built in 2025 has set the UAE on a trajectory to define the next era of global finance.

Khaleej Times