Founder & CEO, bonuz · Dubai since 2007
Building the human layer of the internet. Founder of bonuz, co-founder of the Dubai Blockchain Center, and a firm believer that self-custody and self-sovereignty should be a human right.
About
Matthias Mende started his first business at nine, selling Kinder Surprise figures. By fifteen he was trading Diablo 2 items on eBay and competing in the German Championship of Mario Kart 64 at CeBIT. He dropped out of business school because his own company was more interesting, shipped a customized Mercedes to Dubai, and followed it to the desert in 2007.
In Dubai, he founded MEMMOS, a digital marketing agency that served brands like Mercedes Benz, Audi, and the Billionaire Group through psychological growth hacking and lead generation. In 2016, he discovered Bitcoin's whitepaper and never looked back. He co-founded the Dubai Blockchain Center, served as Chief Strategy Officer at Block Gemini, and in 2021 launched bonuz, the project he now dedicates 90% of his time to building.
Today he builds with his own hands. After two decades of founding and leading companies, he taught himself to code and now ships production software across the bonuz stack, from core infrastructure to the products and integrations built on top of it. An operator who became an engineer.
bonuz is a human outcome infrastructure. A protocol that makes self-custody and self-sovereignty possible with a single click. Matthias believes this should be a human right. He has sold his car to pay salaries, bootstrapped through years of underfunding, and refused to scale back the vision. They call it megalomaniac. But we live only once.
“Self-custody and self-sovereignty should be a human right. Now people can actually have it with one click. That's a beautiful thing. It's more than a business.”Matthias Mende
Journey
Recognition
2024
Binance Blockchain Week Dubai. Voted by global Binance Square community. Presented by He Yi and Rachel Conlan.
2025
No. 5 of the Top 10, official Binance Top 100. Global recognition.
2025
Token2049. Recognized as the top Key Opinion Leader in the Middle East.
2022
Gulf News Web3 Awards. bonuz beat Rally and Chiliz.
2018
CC-Forum, Westminster, London. Block Gemini.
2018
Blockchain Conference, Singapore.
2025
Middle East Blockchain Awards. Brand Me Summit, Canadian University Dubai.
Work
bonuz is the focus. From 2019 to 2023 he also wrote for Thrive Global as a Contributing Author, by invitation of Arianna Huffington.
Founder & CEO
Self-custody and self-sovereignty with one click. Live on mainnet since 2024 with a 10/10 Hacken audit. Where Matthias spends 90% of his time.
Company
The bonuz company page. Every product and vertical shipping on bonuz infrastructure.
Index
Tracking trillion-dollar companies, the first trillionaire, and the most expensive assets on earth.
Speaking
Matthias speaks about self-custody and self-sovereignty as a human right, building the human layer of the internet, and two decades of building in Dubai.
Social
Instagram · Nov 2025
On stage receiving the Binance Square Creator of the Year award.
Instagram · Mar 2026
At the Ramadan majlis of H.E. Khalaf Al Habtoor, with HH Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.
Instagram · Jun 2026
Guest on the Ado Dubai Podcast: building companies, setbacks and starting over.
Instagram · Nov 2022
bonuz wins Best NFT & GameFi Project at the MEBA Awards.
Instagram · Oct 2018
“Your Highness, it is always a pleasure.” A visit with HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid.
The Full Story
A concise two-page biography is available to download now. The complete story, twenty years in the making, is being written as a book.
Download Biography (PDF)The book is coming
Connect
Speaking, press or business: send a message and you'll hear back. Or find him on the platforms below.
Get in Touch →