MENA crypto growth hits $350 billion as Saudi Arabia surges 154% despite ban
The Middle East and North Africa has quietly become one of the fastest-moving corners of the global crypto economy, and the numbers back that up. Annual on-chain transaction volume across the region climbed to roughly $350 billion by 2025–2026, according to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, up from about $100 billion just three years earlier. That trajectory places MENA crypto growth among the sharpest of any region tracked by major blockchain analytics firms, and it’s happening even as governments in the area take wildly different approaches to regulating digital assets.
Key takeaways
- MENA crypto transaction volume rose from about $100 billion in 2022 to roughly $350 billion by 2025–2026, per the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
- Saudi Arabia posted the region’s fastest growth at 154% year-over-year, ahead of Qatar’s 120% increase.
- Turkey remains MENA’s largest crypto market by value, processing nearly $200 billion annually through mid-2025.
- The UAE handled more than $56 billion in crypto volume in 2024–2025, a 33% jump, with USDT and USDC making up around 30% of activity.
- Saudi Arabia still bans cryptocurrencies outright even as it builds institutional digital-asset infrastructure, including participation in the BIS-backed mBridge project.
MENA Crypto Transaction Volume Surges Towards $350 Billion
The headline figure tells a simple story: crypto activity in the Middle East and North Africa has more than tripled in under four years. That growth isn’t evenly distributed, though, and the gap between the fastest-growing markets and the biggest ones by dollar value reveals two very different stories playing out at once.
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