News

Virtuzone Plans To Build V-Shaped Metaverse Skyscraper

The tower would offer a business ecosystem for freelancers, digital nomads, remote employees, and budding entrepreneurs.

Published

4 years ago

September 14, 2022

Nour Nasir

virtuzone plans to build v-shaped metaverse skyscraper

Not content with creating “Mr. Musky”, the world’s first metaverse salesperson, the UAE’s tech startup scene is aiming even higher, with plans to erect an entire office tower inside of the digital universe. The project will be managed and executed by Virtuzone, in collaboration with pax.world.

It will function in much the same way as a traditional brick-and-mortar building, serving the freelance and digital nomad economy and acting as a virtual office and meeting space.

The tower is simply called “The V” and it will offer a fully interactive ecosystem complete with video conferencing, event spaces, and other function rooms, as well as metaverse avatars and a comprehensive suite of communication tools.

The idea behind the project is to incorporate real services and solutions into a completely digital space, enabling seamless communication and networking, plus solutions for accounting and auditing. The tower will even act as a hub for establishing highly tax-efficient legal entities and help businesses utilize legal decentralized autonomous organization structures (DAOs) while pairing with real-world offices and mailing addresses.

virtuzone partnership with pax.world to build v-shaped metaverse skyscraper

“It is our vision as a company to be at the helm of creating a borderless business environment, where geographical boundaries do not exist, and entrepreneurs from all over the world enjoy the freedom to do business and transact with one another in a secure environment,” says George Hojeige, CEO of Virtuzone.

Also Read: Intel And Broadcom Show Off Super-Fast Wi-Fi 7 Technology

Millions of digital nomads and freelancers from around the globe will be drawn to the V tower, which will serve as a metaverse headquarters. The building will also bolster the UAE’s digital economy, attracting investors and helping to shape the region’s continual digital development.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.