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About Thiqwave
Thiqwave is a wholesale settlement layer for the Middle East, built by a team that spent the last three years inside the region’s largest financial institutions solving the same problem from the other side.
Why we exist
The UAE has published one of the most sophisticated stablecoin frameworks in the world. Dirham-backed tokens are licensed and live, and tokenised asset platforms are launching across the Gulf at record pace. Yet when a platform needs to settle a payment across fiat and stablecoins on-chain, there is no single layer to call.
We know that gap from the inside. Between us we have seen how the region’s largest banks, regulators and corporate treasuries actually think about digital assets: what they will approve, what they will not, and where the settlement path breaks. Thiqwave is the layer we could not buy.
Founders
Lukasz Dec
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Lukasz has spent sixteen years building products across fintech, Digital Assets and e-commerce, and the last three inside the largest bank in the GCC. At First Abu Dhabi Bank he led product and user experience across the bank’s digital assets work, including its dirham-pegged stablecoin programme: the same institutional settlement problem Thiqwave now solves from the outside. He is a second-time founder, having previously co-founded and led product at Creatorium. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Banking Committee at the Middle East Stablecoin Association.
First Abu Dhabi Bank
MESA Banking Committee
Second-time founder
16 years in product
“Five years from now, every major cross-border payment in the Gulf will touch stablecoin rails at some point in its journey.”
Ahmed Azab
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
Ahmed has spent fifteen years building and running software inside banks, with a focus on automation, delivery and reliability. He managed software engineering and DevOps at Arab African International Bank, and has worked on large-scale systems for the Saudi market. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University, with professional certifications in data science and artificial intelligence from Microsoft and IBM. He works from Riyadh, which puts Thiqwave’s engineering inside the second market on its roadmap rather than a time zone away from it.
Arab African International Bank
Software and DevOps
15 years in banking software
MSc Computer Science
“Behind every ‘enterprise integration’ are real people who just want tools that don’t break.”
The region
The UAE has one of the most developed stablecoin regimes in the world. The Central Bank’s Payment Token Services Regulation sets federal rules for payment tokens, and dirham-backed tokens are already licensed and operating.
Emirate-level regimes do not cover mainland payment flows. That is why Thiqwave is pursuing a Central Bank of the UAE licence rather than routing around one, and why the compliance path is part of the product rather than a disclaimer at the bottom of it.
We hold a deputy chair seat on the Banking Committee of the Middle East Stablecoin Association. Our founders work from Abu Dhabi and Riyadh: the two markets that phases one and three of our roadmap run through, and the two places where the banks, regulators and treasuries making these decisions actually sit.
30+ years
Combined banking, fintech and web3 experience
Abu Dhabi and Riyadh
Where the founding team works
CBUAE
Payment Token Services licence in progress
Advisors
Our advisors are drawn from First Abu Dhabi Bank, KPMG, Ava Labs, eToro and Simplicity Group.