The Islamic finance industry just crossed $5 trillion in assets this year.
That figure could double by 2030.
Now despite that growth, access to true Sharia compliant financial products is still hard to find in many parts of the world.
With over half a million users worldwide, Fast is now evolving into a full service digital bank.
At the global financial super app, one provisional approval in Malaysia to offer banking services.
Joining me this morning is Daniel Ahmed, who's the co-founder and CEO of Facet.
Good morning, Daniel.
Thank you so much for joining me.
So first and foremost, tell us how inflation and currency devaluation is pushing emerging global markets towards stablecoins.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Look, um, you know, I was listening to your previous segment as well, um, and you, you were talking about emerging market users and stablecoins there as well, but the trend is very clear.
A lot of people in emerging markets are suffering on a daily basis when it comes to inflation, when it comes to, um, devaluation.
And stablecoins are a very easy way for them to be able to save their funds to kind of push back against their kind of, you know, the issues that they face on a daily basis.
So we see a lot of interest in stablecoins in the markets that we're in, and the second order effect of that then is the ability to make payments very quickly, the ability to send funds across the border very quickly as well, which we're helping to facilitate with our company.
And of course, for viewers out there who may not be as familiar, tell us about the Islamic finance market and how banks are taking part in it globally.
So look, the Islamic finance industry is an evolving industry.
There are a number of different factors there that that make it Islamic, you know, we believe that Islamic finance should be treated not as a particular niche, but actually as a blueprint for how finance should work in the digital age.
The real principle that Islamic finance espouses and what we like to do and why partly why we're called facet is because everything needs to be asset backed.
There needs to be real tangible value.
Um, rather than, you know, kind of the unfortunate reality of cryptos that exists today with meme coins and leverage and kind of kind of a removal from the actual real world and real utility.
So I think this, this kind of convergence for democratization of access to assets and the ability of people to get included into this, the financial ecosystem.
It rings very true with what Islamic finance is, and you know, that's kind of the intersection between where our company plays between crypto and real world assets between the kind of traditional financial system and the Islamic financial system to create sustainable wealth for people across the world.
And Daniel, building on what you just said, the Middle East received about $338.7 billion in crypto investments, making it the seventh largest crypto economy in the world.
So tell us how the Middle East, especially Dubai, is positioning itself as a leading digital finance hub with growing crypto influences and also in terms of advances in tokenization as well as stablecoin powered banking.
Absolutely.
Look, you know, there are a number of different jurisdictions globally that are really trying to be the de facto capital of digital assets and cryptocurrency.
I think Dubai buys itself as one of those contenders, and I think the fact that there's a Real push and pull between innovation and regulation that is happening constantly, you know, we've been at roundtables all week this week with, with the virtual regulatory Authority here in the UAE, helping them understand kind of what's coming up with stablecoins, what's coming up with tokenization, that kind of interaction with the regulator is incredibly important, and I think the UAE is really positioning itself to be that kind of world leading, um, champion for for digital assets from a policy perspective and hoping.
Kind of um participants experiment locally.
So one of those experiments that are happening in real time right now is uh when it comes to tokenization of real estate in in Dubai in particular with the Dubai Land Department, um there's a lot of work going on there to establish real on chain tokenization of real estate, um, and, uh, that kind of activity.
Doesn't just happen unless there's a real willingness from the regulator to create an ecosystem for people to come in and experiment and try to push the boundaries and ultimately bring the world on change, right?
Um, we believe that everything will be tokenized at one point, including real estate, and that's, that's kind of how Dubai is positioning itself for that.
Well, Daniel, we will have to leave it there, but thank you so much for joining us this morning and thank you so much for sharing all of your insights and your perspective.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
