Middle Eastern Fintech Companies Explore Stablecoin Opportunities

According to Odaily, Middle Eastern fintech company Fasset, co-founded by CEO Raafi Hossain, is exploring the stablecoin sector. Hossain highlighted several instances of clients using stablecoins, such as selling an $8 million property in Dubai, a Tanzanian buyer purchasing Indonesian edible oil, and renting a villa and private yacht on Jumeirah Palm Island for $100,000. Fasset, based in Dubai, targets markets from Morocco to Malaysia. Dubai's Careem Networks FZ LLC, which offers taxi, food, and financial services, and Abu Dhabi's Astra Tech, which owns the communication app Botim, are also investigating stablecoin-backed payment tools. Hossain noted that stablecoins provide a way to "bypass geographical and institutional barriers, enabling efficient and swift high-value transactions." Careem Pay Vice President Mohammad El Saadi stated that the technology "has the potential to reduce fees, speed up processing, and improve working capital management for cross-border transfers." Over the past 11 months, Careem has opened eight new fiat payment channels in the UAE. Meanwhile, Astra Tech's Product Vice President Rishabh Singh mentioned that Botim is experimenting with AE Coin, a token pegged to the dirham and approved by the UAE Central Bank. According to DeFi Llama, the total market value of all circulating stablecoins has increased from less than $140 billion at the end of 2023 to over $200 billion today. The dominant stablecoin remains USDT, with its issuer, Tether Holdings Ltd., recently announcing a projected net profit of over $10 billion in 2024. CoinGecko data shows that USDT's total circulating supply is close to $140 billion, with its usage concentrated in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa time zones, particularly in the Middle East.