Expatriates in Saudi Arabia sent SAR 165.5 billion abroad in 2025, up 15% year on year, according to Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) data. Pakistan’s IT exports reached $3.81 billion in the first ten months of FY2025-26, per the State Bank of Pakistan. Behind both figures are freelancers, agencies and small businesses who still lose time and money every time they get paid across borders.
Maher Ayari, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorbet and part of the MFTA network, joins FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem on Capital Markets: Wall Street to MENA. Sorbet started in Riyadh through the Antler programme at the end of 2023. Its founders were freelancers themselves, and they saw talent from Morocco to Pakistan paying fees of up to 20% on the few platforms willing to serve them.
Ayari explains where stablecoins actually sit in a Sorbet transaction. A dollar payment into Saudi Arabia or Pakistan can pass through three or four correspondent banks, each taking a cut and adding delay, with funds sometimes arriving three to five days later. Sorbet converts incoming dollars into a USD-denominated stablecoin and works with local partners to off-ramp it into local currency, using the stablecoin as a bridge between payment rails.
He is direct about the trade-offs. Where regulation is still taking shape, as in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, users should understand the flow of funds and who the licensed partners are. Stablecoins have also not removed the friction of existing rails. In his view, the next wave of adoption will come from integrating with the financial system rather than replacing it.
The conversation also covers why trust is harder to earn with freelancers whose entire monthly income passes through a platform. It closes on Sorbet’s next phase: spending and earning features on the way to a full neobank, a sharper focus on B2B payments and work with established fintechs and financial institutions.
Topics: stablecoin-based cross-border payments, correspondent banking friction, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan payment corridors, freelancer and SME payments, stablecoin regulation, B2B payments, neobanking.
Guest: Maher Ayari, Co-Founder and CEO, Sorbet; part of the MFTA network
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV, Capital Markets: Wall Street to MENA
