#加密货币监管立场 Seeing the UAE's approach, I am reminded of the 2017 cycle. Back then, everyone was debating whether Bitcoin was a bubble, whether altcoins should be banned, and whether regulators were enemies or allies. Looking back now, the layered strategy in Abu Dhabi and Dubai is actually an answer to those debates — it's not a binary choice, but a precise deployment based on different stage needs.

Abu Dhabi's "Bitcoin First" approach essentially reflects lessons learned from history. After more than a decade of validation, Bitcoin has established itself as the most risk-resistant asset. Meanwhile, so-called Web3 applications and token economies are still in the experimental stage. Building institutional-grade infrastructure on the most stable underlying assets was already validated by Chinese Bitcoin exchanges in 2014 — at that time, professional exchanges outlived retail ones.

Dubai's route is another dimension. Stablecoins, payments, RWA — these require not speculative market clarity, but clarity in everyday commerce. Telecom giants like e& willing to adopt stablecoin payments indicate what? It shows that regulation has evolved from "whether to do it" to "how to do it." I saw someone trying to bridge banks and blockchain back in 2015, when banks were still banning accounts. Now, ten years later, banks are actively embracing it.

What’s truly worth pondering is the logical shift behind all this. In the past, we treated crypto assets as a unified object for regulation or opposition. Now, the UAE is layering them — institutions use Bitcoin, applications use stablecoins and Web3, each finding their own path. This is not compromise; it’s a rational design based on lessons from history.

Similar differentiation also appeared during the 2020 DeFi boom, but back then, things were too rushed, and no one had patience. This time is different — it looks like real chess is being played.