The race to build digital money's rails is no longer theoretical — and Washington is not the only one racing. Over the past year, the US and the Gulf have each built real regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and tokenised assets from opposite starting points: the US from capital markets, the UAE from payments. Joining me is Shah Ramezani, Founder and CEO of Noah, a stablecoin payments infrastructure provider. Shah, welcome back to the show.
Hey, Johnny. Great to be back on the show again.
The US built its digital asset framework from capital markets. The UAE built it from payments. Does that difference change what you can actually build or just the order of the paperwork?
The UAE has been ahead in providing a regulatory framework. The US is catching up. What it changes is that the US is now becoming a competitor. If they progress with all the different acts, the UAE's first-mover advantage might get challenged. But it does not change anything fundamental — it just means the US takes this very seriously. Their stance has changed in the last few years and they are going with full force.
The UAE's setup has the Central Bank regulating tokenised money, and VARA and ADGM regulating the platforms. Does that clarity give you more confidence building there?
Yes. The UAE already identified that a stablecoin is not a cryptocurrency — it is a payments instrument and it goes to the Central Bank. Then they have VARA and ADGM which regulate the platforms. That clarity makes companies much more comfortable to double down in the UAE early. That is why you see Coinbase or Binance more comfortable investing there. The US is just getting to where the UAE already was years ago.
Pakistan alone pulled in over $40 billion in remittances last year. But you have said the bigger opportunity is B2B, not consumer remittances. Why?
Let us break it down. Stablecoins' biggest impact is on cross-border money movement — it moves much more frictionlessly across borders, without corresponding banking, without Swift. You save significantly on fees. Now, the UAE and Saudi together represent around half of all remittance flows into Pakistan. And normally in remittance, 90% of the flows are actually B2B. That is where we are focusing. That is where the fees are highest and the friction is greatest. We are tackling it head on — providing better infrastructure for businesses to remit money from the UAE to Pakistan, India, and across these different corridors.
Saudi has sandboxes running but still no stablecoin rulebook. What is holding that up?
Saudi is very much where the UAE was years behind. They are going through the educational phase, learning from companies, launching sandboxes. There is nothing firm out there yet that makes companies comfortable to invest in Saudi as a hub for stablecoins or tokenised securities. But they might go fast once they see the opportunity and want to seize it. Right now the UAE is by far the leader in the GCC on cryptocurrency regulation and attracting international companies. Saudi is next on the path — and it may move quickly when it decides to.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you so much, Johnny. Have a good day.
