NEW YORK: The crowds have thinned somewhat at Bitcoin Center, leaving just the true believers in the volatile cryptocurrency.
“Two months ago we couldn’t breathe here” due to the throngs, recalled Nick Spanos, founder of the trading and educational hub in lower Manhattan.
“People outside couldn’t get inside.”
The center, which was set up in December 2013, calls itself a one-of-a-kind epicenter for all things bitcoin. It is primarily frequented by technology and financial types, mostly male and mostly younger, although it aspires to go well beyond that core audience.
“The Bitcoin Center is open seven days a week to shed light on the world of bitcoin to whoever walks in our doors!” proclaims its website. “Our staff can provide an overview of bitcoin on the spot or register guests for our comprehensive bitcoin courses.”
On a recent weekday evening, about 100 people gathered in the space, a parlor in a Ukrainian restaurant, to trade bitcoins on smartphone applications, nibble on complimentary snacks and take in the latest insights from Spanos.
He threw a few barbs at journalists who have cast a skeptical eye on the cryptocurrency’s rollercoaster performance.
But Spanos, who worked previously for former Republican and Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, saved his sharpest words for Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase chief who last year said it was “stupid” to invest in bitcoin, which he has called a “fraud.”
The mention of Dimon drew boos from the crowd, who have seen bitcoin swoon from nearly $20,000 in mid-December to $7,895 on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
Total trading volumes have fallen in half between mid-December and the start of April, according to Bitcoinity.org.
In another sign of faltering interest, the number of weekly searches on Google for bitcoin now stands at about one-fifth the peak level in December, when the cryptocurrency began trading on major exchanges.
The price retreat comes as regulators adopt an increasingly skeptical stance toward the digital money.
On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, citing reports of theft of vast sums of virtual currency from customer accounts, and sudden and poorly explained trading outages, sent queries to 13 major trading platforms on their operations, internal controls, and safeguards to protect customer assets
Twenty-four-year-old Zalman bought his first bitcoin a few months before the spike.
“I panicked at the end of December,” said the young man, who declined to give his last name.
“The slip was hard to digest even though I knew the price could not go up forever,” he said. “I did not sell because I believe in the technological revolution.”
Daniel, a fellow enthusiast, acknowledged selling a small number of his bitcoins amid the rout.
“It’s hard to wake up in the morning and realize that we’ve lost thousands of dollars in the night.”
Daniel said he first began buying the cryptocurrency eight years ago when it cost less than $1.
He said he thinks back on the 2013 bubble “to convince me to keep my bet,” alluding to a seven-day stretch when bitcoin lost about half its value after hitting $1,137 in November of that year.
Some see a silver lining in bitcoin’s recent stumble.
“It’s probably a good thing that prices have fallen, we had gone up too fast,” said one member of the Bitcoin Center who declined to give his name.
“People who knew absolutely nothing came to us by saying they would withdraw all their savings to put them in virtual currencies!”
Longtime cryptocurrency watchers have learned to ride out the waves of volatility.
“Mum-and-dad investors who entered the market when Bitcoin was worth $19,000 can be disappointed,” said Michael Casey, chairman of the advisory board at CoinDesk, a digital media and information service for crypto assets.
“But the community, including those who invested not later than last May, did not lose money.”
Spanos cautioned that “bitcoin is not a ‘get rich quick’ scam.”
“The goal is to keep your bet and ultimately get monetary independence.”
Bitcoin’s true believers vow to ride out currency rollercoaster
Bitcoin’s true believers vow to ride out currency rollercoaster
- The price retreat comes as regulators adopt an increasingly skeptical stance toward the digital money
- Longtime cryptocurrency watchers have learned to ride out the waves of volatility
What MENA’s wild 2025 funding cycle really revealed
RIYADH: The Middle East and North Africa startup funding story in 2025 was less a smooth arc than a sequence of sharp gears: debt-led surges, equity-led recoveries, and periodic quiet spells that revealed what investors were really underwriting.
By November, the region had logged repeated bursts of activity — culminating in September’s $3.5 billion spike across 74 deals — yet the year’s defining feature was not just the size of the peaks, but the way capital repeatedly clustered around a handful of markets, instruments, and business models.
Across the year’s first eleven months, funding totals swung dramatically: January opened at $863 million across 63 rounds but was overwhelmingly debt-driven; June fell to just $52 million across 37 deals; and September reset expectations entirely with a record month powered by Saudi fintech mega facilities.
The net result was a market that looked expansive in headline value while behaving conservatively in underlying risk posture — often choosing structured financing, revenue-linked models, and geographic familiarity over broad-based, late-stage equity appetite.
Debt becomes the ecosystem’s shock absorber
If 2024 was about proving demand, 2025 was about choosing capital structure. Debt financing repeatedly dictated monthly outcomes and, in practice, became the mechanism that let large platforms keep scaling while equity investors stayed selective.
January’s apparent boom was the clearest example: $863 million raised, but $768 million came through debt financing, making the equity picture almost similar to January 2024.
The same pattern returned at larger scale in September, when $3.5 billion was recorded, but $2.6 billion of that total was debt financing — dominated by Tamara’s $2.4 billion debt facility alongside Lendo’s $50 million debt and Erad’s $33 million debt financing.
October then reinforced the playbook: four debt deals accounted for 72 percent of the month’s $784.9 million, led by Property Finder’s $525 million debt round.
By November, more than half the month’s $227.8 million total again hinged on a single debt-backed transaction from Erad.
This isn’t simply ‘debt replacing equity.’ It is debt acting as a stabilizer in a valuation-reset environment: late-stage businesses with predictable cash flows or asset-heavy models can keep expanding without reopening price discovery through equity rounds.
A two-speed geography consolidates around the Gulf
The regional map of venture capital in 2025 narrowed, widened, then narrowed again — but the center of gravity stayed stubbornly Gulf-led.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE alternated at the top depending on where mega deals landed, while Egypt’s position fluctuated between brief rebounds and extended softness.
In the first half alone, total investment reached $2.1 billion across 334 deals, with Saudi Arabia accounting for roughly 64 percent of capital deployed.
Saudi Arabia’s rise was described as ‘policy-driven,’ supported by sovereign wealth fund-backed VC activity and government incentives, with domestic firms such as STV, Wa’ed Ventures, and Raed Ventures repeatedly cited as drivers.
The UAE still posted steady growth in the first half — $541 million across 114 startups, up 18 percent year-on-year — but it increasingly competed in a market where the largest single cheques were landing elsewhere unless the Emirates hosted the region’s next debt mega round.
The concentration became stark in late-year snapshots. In November, funding was ‘tightly concentrated in just five countries,’ with Saudi Arabia taking $176.3 million across 14 deals and the UAE $49 million across 14 deals, while Egypt and Morocco each sat near $1 million and Oman had one undisclosed deal.
Even in September’s record month, the top two markets — Saudi with $2.7 billion across 25 startups and the UAE with $704.3 million across 26 startups — absorbed the overwhelming majority of capital.
A smaller but notable subplot was the emergence of ‘surprise’ markets when a single deal was large enough to change rank order.
Iraq briefly climbed to third place in July on InstaBank’s $15 million deal, while Tunisia entered the top three in June entirely via Kumulus’ $3.5 million seed round.
These moments mattered less for the totals than for what they suggested: capital can travel, but it still needs an anchor deal to justify attention.
Events, narrative cycles, and the ‘conference effect’
2025 also showed how regional deal flow can bunch around events that create permission structures for announcements.
February’s surge — $494 million across 58 deals — was explicitly linked to LEAP 2025, where ‘many startups announced their closed deals,’ helping push Saudi Arabia to $250.3 million across 25 deals.
September’s leap similarly leaned on Money20/20, where 15 deals were announced and Saudi fintechs dominated the headlines.
This ‘conference effect’ does not mean deals are created at conferences, but it does change the timing and visibility of closes.
Sector leadership rotates, but utility wins
Fintech retained structural dominance even when it temporarily lost the top spot by value.
It led January on the back of Saudi debt deals; dominated February with $274 million across 15 deals; remained first in March with $82.5 million across 10 deals; topped the second quarter by capital raised; and reclaimed leadership in November with $142.9 million across nine deals — again driven by a debt-heavy transaction.
Even when fintech fell to ninth place by value in October with $12.5 million across seven rounds, it still remained ‘the most active sector by deal count,’ a sign of persistent baseline demand.
Proptech was the year’s other headline sector, but its peaks were deal-specific. Nawy’s $75 million round in May helped propel Egypt to the top that month and pushed proptech up the rankings.
Property Finder’s debt round in October made proptech the month’s top-funded sector at $526 million. In August, proptech led with $96 million across four deals, suggesting sustained investor appetite for real-estate innovation even beyond the megadeal.
Outside fintech and proptech, the year offered signals rather than dominance. July saw deeptech top the sector charts with $250.3 million across four deals, reflecting a moment of investor appetite for IP-heavy ventures.
AI repeatedly appeared as a strategic narrative — especially after a high-profile visit by US President Donald Trump alongside Silicon Valley investors and subsequent GCC AI initiatives — yet funding didn’t fully match the rhetoric in May, when AI secured just $25 million across two deals.
By late year, however, expectations were already shifting toward mega rounds in AI and the industries built around it, positioning 2025 as a runway-building year rather than a breakout year for AI funding in the region.
Stage discipline returns as valuations reset
In 2025, MENA’s funding landscape tried to balance two priorities: sustaining early-stage momentum while selectively backing proven scale. Early-stage rounds dominated deal flow. October saw 32 early-stage deals worth $95.2 million, with just one series B at $50 million. November recorded no later-stage rounds at all, while even September’s record month relied on 55 early-stage startups raising $129.4 million.
When investors did commit to later stages, the cheques were decisive. February featured Tabby’s $160 million series E alongside two $28 million series B rounds, while August leaned toward scale with $112 million across three series B deals. Late-stage equity was not absent — it was episodic, appearing only when scale economics were defensible.
B2B models remained the default. In the first half, B2B startups raised $1.5 billion, or 70 percent of total funding, driven by clearer monetisation and revenue visibility.
The gender gap remained structural. Despite isolated spikes, capital allocation continued to overwhelmingly favour male-led startups.
What 2025 actually said about 2026
Taken together, 2025 looked like a year of capital market pragmatism. The region demonstrated capacity for outsized rounds, but much of that capacity ran through debt, a handful of megadeals, and a narrow set of markets — primarily Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Early-stage deal flow stayed active enough to keep the pipeline moving, even as growth-stage equity became intermittent and increasingly selective.
By year-end, the slowdown seen in November read less like a breakdown than a deliberate pause: a market in consolidation mode preserving firepower, waiting for clearer valuation anchors and the next wave of platform-scale opportunities.
If 2025 was about proving the region can absorb large cheques, 2026 is shaping up to test where those cheques will go — especially as expectations build around AI-led mega rounds and the industries that will form around them.
