Next-Gen Gulf Heirs Push Family Wealth Into Crypto and Hedge Funds

Next-gen heirs in the Gulf are steering centuries-old fortunes toward crypto and hedge funds, signaling a break from the traditional focus on real estate and local ￰0￱ Takeaways: Gulf heirs are shifting family wealth from real estate to crypto and hedge ￰1￱ Kanoo twins led one of the region’s earliest family office Bitcoin bets in ￰2￱ banks and hedge funds are targeting the Gulf as younger generations seek diversified ￰3￱ the charge are Abdulaziz and Abdulla Kanoo, 28-year-old twin brothers from Bahrain’s storied Kanoo family, who pushed their family office to back Bitcoin in 2020, according to a Tuesday report by ￰4￱ proposal, initially met with skepticism by the family’s investment head James Burke, was eventually approved by the Kanoo Group’s committee, despite resistance from older members.

A small Bitcoin allocation was made, and later sold at a ￰5￱ then, the family office has continued investing in digital assets, now opting for hedge fund structures to manage risk and ￰6￱ Heirs Launch Crypto Firm to Serve Family Offices and External Clients The twins now operate a separate digital asset firm, offering crypto investment services to external clients and other family ￰7￱ move comes as wealthy Middle Eastern families are handing increasing control of their capital to younger generations and professional managers, reshaping portfolios that once favored conservative, tangible ￰8￱ like Citigroup, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank are racing to scale their Gulf wealth divisions to tap into an estimated $1 trillion in wealth transfers expected across the ￰9￱ has become a magnet for hedge funds, with over 70 now operating in the ￰10￱ Dhabi is home to global players like Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! ARAMCO, Saudi Arabia’s oil giant, wants to tokenize its oil reserves on the $WLFI Ledger! THIS WILL TELEPORT WLFI TO $10 ￰11￱ — Crypto Guru (@BDCryptoGuru) October 6, 2025 This local presence has opened ￰12￱ Lawrence of Nettlestone Capital Advisors says Gulf family offices now conduct their own due diligence and prefer diversified bets, with $5 million allocations making a real impact on smaller hedge funds. Still, the shift isn’t ￰13￱ Eastern portfolios remain more conservative than their Western counterparts, with larger holdings in liquid assets and real estate, according to HSBC and Campden ￰14￱ structures often include multiple layers of checks, reflecting generational divides.

“As a family business, you have a lot of layers of governance and risk that you need to go through,” Abdulla Kanoo ￰15￱ Families Embrace Crypto, Hedge Funds, and Tokenized Assets However, momentum is ￰16￱ Group’s Bhaskar Dasgupta notes rising hedge fund allocations and strong crypto interest among Emirati ￰17￱ real estate and digital yield strategies are also gaining ￰18￱ profit, younger heirs are bringing new values to the ￰19￱ Chalhoub, 31, of the Franco-Syrian Chalhoub luxury group, champions ESG investing and runs an EV rental business in ￰20￱ move comes as the UAE continues to position itself as a regional hub for blockchain innovation and crypto finance, with regulatory clarity attracting major global ￰21￱ reported, a state-backed investment firm in Abu Dhabi is set to make a $2 billion investment into crypto exchange Binance using USD1, a stablecoin developed by World Liberty Financial — a crypto venture closely tied to the Trump ￰22￱ claim the UAE is poised to become a key destination for crypto and stablecoin ventures seeking refuge from the European Union’s (EU) newly implemented Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.