Dubai: The bitcoin frenzy has hit the region as well.

“Thousands and thousands” of new people in the region are buying their first bitcoin and ethereum on Dubai-based BitOasis on a daily basis, indicating exploding interest in cyrpto-currencies, a trend that is aligned to their counterparts overseas.

Bitcoin, which has risen more than 17 times in the past one year, has attracted massive interest from amateur professionals as well as ultra high net worth individuals, with many investing in and others sitting on the fence despite experts in traditional finance calling it a bubble or a tulip mania seen in the 16th century.

“In the recent few weeks, we’ve experienced tremendous growth on our platform, and we’re now on boarding thousands of new customers on daily basis on our website,” Ola Doudin, Chief executive officer, BitOasis said in a blog.

Due to this massive interest, BitOasis’ clients are experiencing delays in verifications and wire withdrawals. Verification now takes 7-9 working days.

“We’re also implementing a new system of user verifications that should reduce the processing time once our backlog clears,” Doudin said.

BitOasis has also doubled the size of its team and they are “adding more resources and talent as fast as we can to keep up with the growth.”

BitOasis, which was launched in 2015, has 12 employees, according to its LinkedIn profile, and has 5,648 followers.

Getting educated

ADS Securities, which offers contracts for difference on Bitcoins locally, said all kind of investors are now interested in the cryptocurrency.

“We see all kind of investors getting into Bitcoin. Early adapters were the ones who already have some exposure on technology-related themes,” Konstantinos Anthis, head of research, ADS Securities told Gulf News.

“But over the past few weeks, all kinds of investors are interested in taking exposure as bitcoin dominates the news headlines and more people are getting educated in this new kind of financial instrument,” Anthis said.

In all despite the interest, Doudin, founder of BitOasis has a simple message for all her clients: “We also ask you to invest responsibly as digital assets are volatile commodities.”

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