Muhammed Bilal used to have to wait his turn outside a money transfer office in the scorching heat of Dubai to send home $1,000 to his wife and parents in Pakistan each month, at a cost of about $7 per transfer. He has since switched to an app that allows him to send money instantly with no transfer fees, joining a growing number of migrants in the United Arab Emirates using cryptocurrencies and blockchain services to send remittances quickly and cheaply.
“Now, I don’t need to wait in queues,” said Bilal, a 27-year-old customer service agent. “I do it at home from my mobile phone and the money is sent within seconds.” The Middle East and North Africa had the fastest-growing crypto market in the world last year, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis, with crypto transfers into the region rising by 48% to $566 billion in the year to June. The use of crypto for remittances and savings, as well as increasingly permissive regulations are helping to drive growth in the region, it added. —Reuters
