Ramy Soliman, the former chief executive of prime-of-prime broker Stater Global Markets, has co-founded a startup built to send stablecoin payments to basic mobile phones. He announced the Abu Dhabi venture, Saleem, in a LinkedIn post today (Monday).
Saleem wants aid agencies, ministries, employers and banks to pay people from their treasuries straight to the phone they already own, with or without a bank account. It is registered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as 5 Lanes Limited, and Soliman runs it with co-founder Faris Sibai.
The target is money that still moves over bank rails. Pakistan, which ended its seven-year crypto banking ban in April, receives about $40 billion in remittances a year.
Cutting transfer costs by one percentage point would save about $400 million annually, the chairman of its virtual assets regulator said in August.
From Prime Brokerage to Stablecoins
Soliman spent five years each at IG and Citi in sales roles before taking the helm of Stater as it launched in London in 2016.
Stater closed in 2019 after its parent stopped funding it, and Soliman moved to GMO-Z.com Trade UK as chief strategy officer.
From 2022 to January 2026 he worked at GMO-Z.com Trust Company, the New York-regulated issuer of GYEN, the first regulated yen-pegged stablecoin, and the dollar-backed ZUSD, rising to president, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also co-founded the Middle East Stablecoin Association in 2025.
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GMO Trust began an orderly wind-down of both tokens on May 15 and entered voluntary dissolution. Holders can redeem them at par until November 11, according to GMO Trust.
Built for Feature Phones
Soliman wrote that stablecoins are “easy to send but hard to receive where people most need them.” Many potential recipients across the Middle East and South Asia have no smartphone or bank account, he added.
Its website says Saleem works through USSD and SIM Toolkit menus on feature phones, alongside smartphone apps and a desktop console. It lists Stellar, ADI Chain, Solana and Polygon as supported networks, and USDC and USDT as supported tokens.
Stellar has hosted remittance projects before. MoneyGram partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation in 2021 to settle cross-border transfers in USDC and pay them out in local currency.
The service is not live yet. The website describes Saleem as pre-launch and not licensed to conduct regulated financial activities, with its production systems, partner connections and security testing still to be completed.
“We have spent this year building rather than talking,” Soliman wrote. The first corridors will run from the Gulf to the Levant and Pakistan through licensed and distribution partners, and he cited countries that are rebuilding, such as Syria, among those he wants to serve.
Saleem is part of the 2026 accelerator cohort run by the Stellar Development Foundation and CV Labs, and is due to present at the foundation’s Meridian conference in Lisbon in October. Soliman said it has started early conversations about its first external funding round.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.Executive MovesRead More
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