According to Deep Tide TechFlow news on January 8, Bloomberg reported a surge in the use of stablecoins in the Middle East:
Raafi Hossain, co-founder and CEO of Middle Eastern fintech company Fasset, introduced several examples of customers using stablecoins, including the sale of a $8 million Dubai property, Tanzanian buyers purchasing Indonesian cooking oil, renting a villa on Palm Jumeirah for $100,000, and private yacht rentals. Fasset is a Dubai-based "super app" focused on markets from Morocco to Malaysia.
Dubai's Careem Networks FZ LLC, which provides taxi, food, and financial services, and Abu Dhabi's Astra Tech's communication app Botim are also exploring the launch of payment tools supported by stablecoins.
Careem Pay Vice President Mohammad El Saadi stated that this technology "has the potential to lower costs, speed up processing times, and improve operational capital management for cross-border transfers." The company has opened 8 new fiat payment channels in the UAE over the past 11 months.
Astra Tech Vice President of Products Rishabh Singh stated that Botim has been experimenting with AE Coin, which is pegged to the dirham and has been approved by the Central Bank of the UAE.
According to data from DeFi Llama, the total market capitalization of all circulating stablecoins has grown from less than $140 billion at the end of 2023 to over $200 billion today. So far, the dominant stablecoin is USDT, whose issuer Tether Holdings Ltd. recently stated it will achieve over $10 billion in net profit in 2024. According to CoinGecko, the total circulating supply of USDT is close to $140 billion.