Bitcoin Treasury Fever Hits The Middle East

In a watershed moment for Gulf capital markets, Al Abraaj Restaurants Group (trading on the Bahrain Bourse as ABRAAJ) disclosed on Wednesday that it has transferred part of its corporate treasury into Bitcoin, becoming the first publicly listed company anywhere in the Middle East to hold the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.

Al Abraaj Leads MENA With Bitcoin Treasury Move

In a statement released in Arabic, the food-services operator said it had “completed a historic first-time purchase of Bitcoin within its institutional treasury” and intends to “build a strategic, Sharia-compliant pathway to Bitcoin for the Islamic world.” The company hailed the move as one that “gives a clear zone bulls need to fully regain for the next impulse higher,” adding on social media: “Al Abraaj just became the first public company in the Middle East to adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy. We’re stacking sats for real.”

To implement the strategy, Al Abraaj has partnered with New York–based merchant bank 10X Capital. The two firms said they will pursue additional capital raises so the restaurant chain can “increase the units of Bitcoin per share,” mirroring the playbook pioneered by MicroStrategy in the United States and, more recently, by Japan’s Metaplanet.

10X Capital is also structuring a separate $710 million vehicle for Nakamoto–the company founded by Trump advisor and BTC Inc. CEO David Bailey–it hopes to list on Nasdaq under the ticker KDLY, positioning it as what executives call “the largest aggregation platform for companies launching Bitcoin treasury strategies.”

Management emphasised its determination to satisfy Islamic-finance mandates. Al Abraaj described BTC as “an innovation that can be delivered in a manner consistent with Sharia principles,” and said the partnership with 10X Capital is intended to “open Bitcoin access to investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and beyond” through the purchase of ABRAAJ shares on the Bahrain Bourse.

The decision places the 38-year-old restaurant group in rarefied company. MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) sparked global headlines when they began converting excess cash into Bitcoin, while Tokyo-listed Metaplanet (TSE: 3350) adopted the same playbook this spring 2024. Their stocks have been among 2024’s top performers, and Al Abraaj is betting the market will reward a similar conviction trade in the Gulf.

David Bailey, a partner at 10X Capital and a vocal proponent of corporate BTC adoption, hailed the deal on X: “Bitcoin Treasury Co Kingdom of Bahrain. LFGGGGGG.”

While the size of Al Abraaj’s initial allocation was not disclosed, management signalled that further purchases are likely as it seeks to align treasury reserves with “a long-term, hard-cap monetary asset.”

Al Abraaj commented via X: “Big shoutout to the legend Michael Saylor — your laser-eyed conviction lit the path. Al Abraaj just became the first public company in the Middle East to adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy. We’re stacking sats for real.”

At press time, BTC traded at $102,732.