Born to Disrupt – Web3, Stablecoins, and the Future of Digital Economies with Ahmed Amer
In episode 10 of Born to Disrupt, hosts Grant Niven and Mark Walker are joined by Ahmed Amer, CEO of EMURGO Labs, to discuss how Web3, stablecoins, and tokenisation are shaping the future of digital economies, particularly across Africa and the Middle East. With a background in investment banking, venture capital, and e-commerce, Ahmed offers both strategic and practical insights into how blockchain technologies are being applied in real-world contexts—beyond the hype and towards measurable impact.
From Wall Street to Web3
Ahmed begins by sharing his professional journey, which started in traditional finance on Wall Street before evolving through tech entrepreneurship and venture investing. His early exposure to Bitcoin in 2012 sparked an enduring interest in decentralised finance. However, it was the convergence of this interest with his experience in emerging markets that convinced him of Web3’s transformative potential.
Today, Ahmed leads EMURGO Labs, the venture-building arm of EMURGO, one of the founding entities of Cardano, a Layer 1 blockchain protocol. EMURGO focuses on deploying Web3 infrastructure and investing in decentralised startups across frontier markets, where traditional systems are often inefficient or inaccessible.
Stablecoins: Practical Innovation for Volatile Markets
A central theme in the episode is the role of stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar—as practical tools for financial inclusion. Ahmed explains how, during the pandemic, many businesses and governments in emerging markets turned to stablecoins when traditional banking systems collapsed or became unreliable.
He gives examples from regions where local currencies are subject to hyperinflation, capital controls, or restricted international banking access. In such cases, stablecoins have enabled access to global markets, supported trade, and offered a hedge against local currency depreciation. Compared to Bitcoin, which remains too volatile for most institutional use cases, stablecoins offer a bridge between Web3 innovation and financial stability.
EMURGO has also launched its own regulated stablecoin—USDA—within the Cardano ecosystem, aiming to provide compliance-ready, accessible digital payment solutions for global users.
Tokenisation and Real-World Assets
The conversation moves on to tokenisation, which Ahmed describes as the process of digitally representing real-world assets—such as real estate, commodities, or equity—on a blockchain. Tokenisation allows assets to be fractionalised, increasing liquidity and enabling broader participation in traditionally exclusive markets.
Ahmed emphasises the growing interest in tokenisation from institutional players, particularly in the UAE and wider Middle East, where regulated pilots are already underway. This includes real estate token offerings and tokenised investment products that lower the barrier to entry for both retail and institutional investors.
Tokenisation, he argues, is not just a technical innovation—it is an economic one, providing transparency, efficiency, and trust in markets long dominated by intermediaries.
Integrating Traditional Finance with Web3
Ahmed is clear that the future of Web3 lies not in isolation but in integration with traditional financial systems. Rather than creating a parallel economy, he advocates for bridging decentralised technologies with existing frameworks—working with banks, regulators, and legacy institutions to co-create solutions that are both innovative and compliant.
This pragmatic vision extends to how EMURGO Labs operates: building ventures and solutions that solve tangible problems—such as cross-border payments, invoice factoring, and trade finance—using blockchain infrastructure as a backend, without overloading users with complexity.
Outlook: Africa and the Middle East as Web3 Catalysts
Looking ahead, Ahmed sees Africa and the Middle East as ideal grounds for blockchain adoption, given their young, tech-savvy populations and gaps in traditional infrastructure. He believes these regions can leapfrog outdated systems and directly adopt blockchain-based models for commerce, remittances, and asset management.
Ahmed’s vision is grounded in realism and impact—one that sees Web3 as a toolkit for building inclusive, resilient, and digitised economies. As stablecoins and tokenisation gain traction, the potential to transform how value is created, stored, and transferred in emerging markets is not just promising—it is already under way.
