• IOTA continues strategic expansion with first DLT Foundation in the UAE’
• The IOTA Foundation will allocate $100 million to the initiative.
• IOTA price was rallying after the news, up 50% at the time of writing.

IOTA’s strategic expansion has reached another milestone with the registration of the first DLT foundation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The IOTA Foundation first announced plans for the foundation in September, highlighting registration with the Abu Dhabi Global as a step that would aid IOTA’s expansion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The news came as the IOTA price spiked more than 50% to above $0.26.

IOTA Foundation allocates $100 million to initiative

Per today’s announcement, an investment of over $100 million has been allocated for the DLT Foundation, with the funding done in IOTA tokens. These will be vested over the next four years as the foundation looks to nurture innovation and adoption of the IOTA protocol.

The funding will also go towards community-driven projects and regulatory synergy, the IOTA Foundation said. Among initiatives to receive greater attention will be those targeted at IOTA and Shimmer, its staging network.

On what this means for IOTA’s push to align with regulatory developments, IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener, said:

“The IOTA Foundation’s support from ADGM and our partnership with UAE authorities is about more than global expansion. It’s about ushering in a new era of regulatory synergy in the crypto markets. We want to ensure that we take the right steps toward digital autonomy for everyone, and that means making sure a diversity of communities take an active role in shaping the Foundation’s technology and governance.”

IOTA’s partnership with the ADGM comes as the UAE increasingly becomes an important international crypto destination. As a leading financial center, the country has attracted several blockchain and crypto-related companies.

Today, stablecoin issuer Paxos announced it had secured two in-principle approvals from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). The company is now set to issue stablecoins and provide brokerage and custody services in the ADGM.