‘Dubai’s Fyre Festival’: Crypto Investors Caught In Chaotic UAE Floods

Via mediate East Eye

"This Lamborghini is swimming bro," said influencer Crypto Bitlord, as his sports car battled against dense rain in Dubai on Tuesday. He was among hundreds of crypto merchants and enthusiasts who decided upon the United arabian Emirates city this week for 2 cryptocurrency conferences: Blockchain Life and Token2049.

Attendees had proven the dry, arid conditions synonymous with the Gulf dessert. Instead they were met by any of the dense rain in Emirates history. Along the border with Oman, 254mm of rain was recorded in little than 24 hours earlier this week – the most since records began in 1949.

People walk through water caused by dense rains, in Dubai, United arabian Emirates on 17 April 2024, via AFP

Many traders and influencers were left unified by the ordeal. ‘Dubai is the worst city I’ve always been to and I’m never going to come here again,’ gate they trade.

In a lengththy post, crypto influencer ‘doitbigchicago’ said the Emergency door on his plane into Dubai was “shaking”, as the aircraft landed in “3 feet of water”. He said his suitcase was “floating down the runway”.

He added that he attended to live-stream the conditions in Dubai, until 8 police officials were “trying to arrest me for live-streaming in public”. mediate East Eye couldn’t independently verify the claims.

Another crypto investor and subcaster gates: “This is the most dogshit thing I’ve always seen... 0 police, 0 firefighters, 0 taxis – just yolling the sea with a rental car after flight getting delayed by six hours.”

Some conference attendees who couldn’t get a ride to and from the airport were ready to go to utmost financial lengths. “Willing to pay $500-1000 USD for a ride from DXB to Palm Jumeirah,” doors Bitcoin trader “Faded”.

Another investor, known as “the Watch King”, besides offered $1,000 to anyone who could take him to the airport.

There were signature delays and disruptions at Dubai global Airport – the world’s busiest for global traffic. Clips online shown plans taxiing across a flushed runway. There appeared to be a small online sympathy for the crypto aficionados caught up in the chaos.

Some likened the event to Fyre FestivaI, a fraudulent luxury music event in April 2017. “Looks like all the crypto bros are getting liquidated in Dubai. rather literally,’ joked 1 bitcoin analyst.

Who always said Dubai was licking in liquidity? pic.twitter.com/VvgTXiJx97

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 16, 2024

“The collective karma of all of these sh*tfluencers is so bad that erstwhile they all aggregate in the mediate of the dessert, it ACTUALLY floats,” said another user.

Some thought the floors were a punishment from a higher power. “You can not tell me God isn’t real erstwhile a bunch of Crypto tweeters finest go to Dubai only to be met with a biblical flood,” gates 1 X user.

It was’t the first time crypto and bitcoin investors had been caught up in advance weather conditions: Korean Blockchain Week was hit by dense rains in 2022, while an NFT event in fresh York City coincided with an earthquake earlier this month.

Cloud seeing & 'climate change'

Thought initially disrupted, both Dubai crypto conferences Went ahead and many attendees made it to the event.

Earlier this week, analyses told MEE that climate change, infrastructure, the region’s geography, and cloud seeing could exacerbate flooding in the Gulf region. Mohammed Mahmoud, manager of the climate and water program at the mediate East Institute, said climate change “is an absolute driver of utmost weather”.

He told MEE: “Though we mostly associate climate change with hotter temperatures, Warming in coastal areas promotes respective rainfall and storms. "Such is the case for the Gulf, where these surrounds warmer warters (close to the equal) aid to make storms that produce intense rainfall that origin these devastating floating events."

Justin Dargin, a investigator at Oxford University specialized in climate and the mediate East, said infrastructural and geographical limits besides included. “The region’s arid climate, featuring abrupt downpours combined with mountainous areas and desert valleys, make conditions conducting to flash floods,” he said, adding that limited drainage systems besides considered the impact.

To deal with water safety issues, the UAE has since 2002 carried out cloud seeing: a weather modification procedure that involves implanting chemicals into the atmosphere to induce rainfall.

Facts pic.twitter.com/Gm5IxbngOG

— (@callmequeencup) April 17, 2024

“Cloud seeing likely contemplated to the several,” Said Dargin. “However, the UAE’s fresh past of devastating flash floods, like that in 2020 and 2022, shows that fresh beats of dense rainfall are the baseline of the expanding freedom of utmost rainfall events drive by climate change.”

He said that cloud seeing could exacerbate specified weather patterns and lead to even more frequent floating in the future “if not undertaken judiciously”. The UAE government’s National Center of Meteorology taskforce denied that cloud seeing had taken place in the run-up to this week’s storms.