Heir to 135-year Gulf dynasty is moving a $6 trillion trade market onto blockchain rails

For more than 135 years, the Kanoo family, one of Bahrain’s wealthiest families, has helped build the Gulf’s entire commercial infrastructure.

The family, with a net worth of up to $6 billion, owns businesses spanning shipping, logistics, travel and finance.

Abdulla Kanoo, one of the heirs to this 135-year-old dynasty, is now involved in crypto. While he refuses to reveal his family’s or his personal bitcoin investments, he says he’s invested in digital assets since 2015 and remains “faithful” to bitcoin BTC$64,740.89.

Kanoo also believes the next generation of global commerce will not be built on ports or banks, but on digital rails or, more specifically, on the blockchain, where programmable money is king.

Kanoo is the co-founder of ARP Digital, a digital asset infrastructure project focused on allowing the movement of money between emerging economies faster, cheaper and with fewer intermediaries.

“The Gulf was where global capital was stored,” he told CoinDesk. “The next chapter is about movement.”

Kanoo is not launching another crypto exchange nor is he pitching a new token. He has his goals set on expanding the family legacy on a global scale.