Joining me now on Zoom is Abdul Rafy Gadit, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of ZIGChain. Rafy, welcome to Wall Street to Mena. First, what is actually broken today about the way money moves across borders using the traditional fiat system?
Thank you very much for having me. It's a very important topic and a very hot one these days. Let's think of it from this perspective: historically, when you look at payments and investments, they have been pretty much gated. The treatment of money transfers in developed markets has been very different from how it's been treated in developing markets and the third world. What stablecoins bring to the table is the movement of money in a much faster, much cheaper, and less costly way. Historically, moving money from Dubai to Nairobi can take a couple of days, with exorbitant fees on top. But with stablecoins, in the blink of an eye, these things are moving — obviously in a more compliant and regulated way. I think that's the biggest win: the payment rails. And then investment inclusion is the second biggest problem being solved. From a financial inclusion and cost efficiency perspective, stablecoins fill a very big gap.
So tell us why stablecoins are now considered a better solution than fiat for cross-border payments specifically.
Historically, when you have too many intermediary parties in between — your remitting bank or exchange, the corresponding bank, and the receiving bank — you're talking about enormous operational complexity, tons of different systems working together, and a lack of transparency in how money moves between Vostro and Nostro accounts. But when you look at how stablecoins work in a single ledger blockchain environment, the technology makes it possible for money to move faster. The fastest innovation coming in this space is where stablecoins are being used as collateral while remittances are getting settled at the receiving end — which means that even if the money across fiat and stablecoins isn't fully on and off-ramped, the settlement happens in a near-instant scenario. That creates a very good environment for both the remitter and the receiver, across individuals as well as businesses. In the world we live in, everything has become instant and patience cycles have come down massively. So when you use stablecoins to make settlements even for fiat currencies, that's where the big innovation is happening. And the great part is that banks are becoming part of it — it's not a fight anymore. Banks have embraced stablecoins, as we just recently saw with OUSD coming in. It's a great technical collaboration happening between traditional banks and modern-day blockchains.
Yeah, it's a collaboration now. So ZIGChain calls itself a wealth management engine for everyone. What does that actually mean?
I originally come from Pakistan, and I understand this pain from pretty much every emerging market. When you talk about bringing investment opportunities to everyone, everywhere in the world, in a compliant environment — that's where we stand, and we use stablecoins at the base of it. Using tokenization technology, we are bringing things like private credit, yield-bearing instruments, and many other products onto blockchain rails that can be accessible by anyone, anywhere in the world. The color of your passport does not determine your future journey into the investment cycle. We are global, with a very big presence in the Middle East, and what we've been doing is sourcing yield from businesses inside the Middle East and bringing capital from the outside. So not only are we bringing capital to businesses, we are providing investment opportunities into private companies using blockchain for everyone. Our mission is very clear: we believe the future of finance is on-chain. The question is not if blockchain is needed — the question is how you bring compliant products on-chain in a trustable and accessible environment. That is what ZIGChain is solving for.
And about location — why do you think the Gulf is the right place to be building this kind of infrastructure right now?
I believe that if you look at the history of the last 30 to 40 years, the West has targeted the Middle East to acquire capital from here and deploy it elsewhere, with only a limited amount being deployed locally. We believe the Gulf, the whole Middle East, gives you an immense opportunity to expand a business. If you look at the average population age, internet penetration, and government policies — it is so pro-technology, pro-AI, and pro-blockchain that you should be attracting capital towards this market. Using core blockchain technology and tokenization specifically, you can take investment opportunities from the Middle East to the world. The UAE government and the Gulf in general provide a phenomenal and conducive environment for businesses like ours to operate. We can innovate, progress much faster, and actually demonstrate what can potentially be done. We are not the laggards anymore. We actually believe that the next great new-age finance company can come out of the Middle East and create a $1 trillion business in the world — and we hope that we can be that. The UAE provides that environment very well.
Mr. Gadit, ZIGChain also just secured Sharia certification. How big is the Islamic finance opportunity for stablecoin infrastructure?
We became the first blockchain to receive Sharia certification on proof-of-staking, basically for token holders. The Sharia-compliant market is huge — it's a $7 trillion untapped market, and there isn't even a single large player in the world that focuses on it at a global scale. Being in this region, we believe we have a right to win. Solutions can be created out of this region for Muslims across the world — in North America, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and China. The Muslim population is the fastest growing and youngest population in the world, with a growing GDP. Catering to that market is not just an ethical perspective — it's a great business opportunity. And not to forget, the principles on which Islamic finance works are not just for Muslims, they're for everyone. If you look at the growth of Islamic finance in China, it's fantastic, because the basics are clear and appealing to everyone. Thanks to tokenization and blockchain technology, Islamic finance can go not only to Muslims of the world, but to non-Muslims as well as an ethical finance alternative — one with a far deeper and stronger fundamental background compared to a general speculative environment.
So it's not specifically for Muslims — it's for everyone. Thank you so much for your insights today. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you very much for having me.
