Core Ventures incubated Nawa Finance, the first Sharia-compliant Bitcoin yield platform in the GCC. Two weeks after launch, Nawa has crossed $40 million in TVL—early signs of demand for compliant Bitcoin yield in the region.

The GCC is rapidly emerging as a major force in global crypto adoption, with sovereign wealth funds and institutions increasingly allocating to Bitcoin. While the region’s exact BTC holdings are not publicly disclosed, recent investments by entities like Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala signal a strategic shift toward digital assets. Regulatory and ethical constraints have historically limited access to yield opportunities, but new Sharia-compliant products are beginning to unlock this potential.

“Nawa Finance exemplifies our incubation thesis: bridging Bitcoin’s utility with local regulatory and cultural frameworks. By enabling Sharia-compliant yield, we’re unlocking institutional capital in a region poised to drive the next wave of BTC adoption.” — Brendon Sedo, Initial Contributor at Core DAO & Core Ventures.

Why This Matters

• Founding Team: Nawa is led by a multidisciplinary team with deep roots in Islamic finance, digital asset infrastructure, and institutional product design. Shaqir Hashim serves as a core contributor of the project. Hashim brings deep expertise at the intersection of Islamic finance, digital asset infrastructure, and compliance-focused fintech innovation in the MENA region.
• Sharia Compliance: Nawa’s strategies align with Islamic finance principles, validated by partnerships with leading scholars and auditors. This unlocks access for institutions like sovereign wealth funds and pension managers, which mandate ethical frameworks
• Early Traction: In just two weeks since launch, Nawa has already attracted over $40 million in TVL, signaling strong product-market fit and latent demand for compliant Bitcoin yield products in the region.
• Incubation Support: Through mentorship, technical infrastructure, and ecosystem access, the team helped accelerate Nawa’s development of a decentralized protocol designed to unlock Sharia-compliant yield and liquidity for the DeFi ecosystem.
• Market Potential: The Middle East & North Africa region made up 7.5% of the world’s total crypto transaction volume between July 2023 and June 2024. Nawa’s solutions target this liquidity, offering yields of 15–60% APY via delta-neutral strategies and institutional-grade risk management.

Key Innovations

• Ethical Yield: Nawa avoids interest (riba) and excessive risk (gharar), instead generating returns through Bitcoin staking, liquidity provisioning, and compliant DeFi integrations
• Institutional-Grade Security: Cold storage reserves, over-collateralization, and third-party audits ensure alignment with Sharia and regulatory standards.
• Liquidity Preservation: Users retain full control of assets via non-custodial wallets, addressing regional concerns about centralized intermediaries.

Nawa’s launch aligns with surging Middle Eastern crypto adoption when millions of institutional beneficiaries in the Middle East now have indirect Bitcoin exposure via ETFs and pensions, a number that continues to grow as adoption accelerates.

Learn more: Nawa Finance | Core Ventures