Crypto entrepreneur Praneet Sinha moved his startup Moongate from London to the UAE, citing the costs of converting crypto revenue into fiat currency, the regulatory environment and tax arrangements. Official figures show sustained net emigration by UK citizens, but do not reveal how many founders have left or why they made that choice. A voluntary survey of entrepreneurs and executives offers some clues: respondents who had left or planned to leave cited tax, access to capital, job opportunities and quality of life, with tax and capital together mentioned more often than quality of life alone.
Moongate moved to the UAE over operating and tax considerations
Sinha co-founded crypto startup Moongate in London in 2022. The company planned to accept fees in crypto assets, while continuing to pay salaries and routine expenses in fiat currency. That meant converting crypto revenue into fiat.
Sinha said the Ras Al Khaimah Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO) offered a more suitable regulatory and business environment, along with advantages for crypto companies and tax arrangements. He moved Moongate from the UK to RAK DAO. Sinha himself relocated in August 2024 and now lives in Abu Dhabi. UK-registered Moongate Labs Ltd was dissolved in July 2025, while MoonPay acquired Moongate’s business in June 2026.
UK net emigration reached 507,000 over five years
Long-term migration estimates from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) put net emigration of UK citizens at 507,000 between 2021 and 2025. The provisional figure for 2025 was a net outflow of 136,000.
In November 2025, the ONS revised its method for measuring migration by UK citizens to address an earlier undercount. The revised series currently goes back to 2021.
The figures cover UK citizens across all industries. They do not isolate crypto founders, show whether businesses moved with their founders or quantify any resulting tax impact. The ONS has said that conducting high-quality surveys overseas is difficult and that it cannot access administrative data on residents held by foreign governments. The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has also noted that there is limited information on which UK citizens leave and their reasons for doing so.
Official statistics therefore show the scale of net emigration but offer little insight into individual decisions. Tech Nation asked company founders in its 2025 Scaleup Report what might prompt them to move their headquarters out of the UK. Cessiah Lopez, who leads Superteam UK, said some founders in the group’s network were considering Dubai, Singapore, New York and San Francisco.
Voluntary survey puts tax and capital at 36.7% of reasons for leaving
Superteam UK’s Brain Drain Wall received 576 voluntary submissions between July 16 and October 21, 2026. Of those who responded, 61% said they wanted to stay in the UK, 32% planned to leave and 7% had already left. About 157 respondents, or more than a quarter, were founders or company executives; 63 identified their role as founder. Nearly half lived in London.
Among the 226 respondents who planned to leave or had already left the UK, 25.2% cited quality of life as a main reason, 24.3% pointed to the tax environment, 20.4% to job opportunities and 12.4% to access to capital. Tax and capital together accounted for about 36.7%, more than quality of life alone.
The reasons given by those planning to stay differed. Among 350 respondents in that group, 48.9% cited family and personal ties, 20.3% career prospects and opportunities, and 12% quality of life.
The survey is not an official statistical exercise. Participation was voluntary, so its results reflect people who chose to share their experiences and should not be treated as representative of all UK founders or crypto workers. Still, the responses point to specific questions for policymakers: alongside living conditions, do tax arrangements, access to funding and career opportunities affect whether entrepreneurs stay in the UK?
Arun Krishnakumar weighs a move to the US
Arun Krishnakumar, who has lived in the UK for nearly 21 years, studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, and worked at Barclays and PwC. He praised London’s ability to develop talent through its educational institutions, but said entrepreneurs are sometimes told that the same venture could be better positioned in Silicon Valley. He plans to move to the US, citing its capital, startup culture and regulatory environment.
The footprint of venture capital firms has also shifted. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) scaled back its UK operations in January 2025 to focus on the US. Less than two years earlier, it had chosen London for its first office outside the US.
The available figures do not yet show which industries account for UK talent outflows or what the economic consequences may be. Brain Drain Wall aims to gather personal accounts of relocation to inform discussion of policy barriers. Asked whether Moongate would have stayed in London if the UK had offered conditions comparable to RAK DAO, Sinha said: “Yes. Setting up a company in another country does add another layer of hassle.”