Saudi Arabia → Pakistan
Pakistan is among the world's top-five remittance recipients and Saudi Arabia its largest sending market. At just over 5%, the surveyed average sits above the global mean — a wide gap to on-chain transfer costs.
Incumbent average cost (Q3 2025, $200 send)
5.02%
On a $200 send
$10.04
Remittances received by Pakistan (2024)
~$33B
Incumbent average: World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, corridor average total cost for a $200 send, Q3 2025. Inflows: World Bank / KNOMAD estimates, 2024. Total remittance inflows to Pakistan from all corridors; Saudi Arabia is the largest single source.
The on-chain leg on stablecoin rails, right now
| Chain | Est. fee / transfer | $1,000 (bps) | Typical finality | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalanche C-Chain | $0.000045 | 0.00045 | ~2 s | 71 |
| OP Mainnet | $0.00018 | 0.0018 | ~2 s* | 62 |
| Solana | $0.00050 | 0.0050 | ~13 s | 68 |
| Base | $0.00094 | 0.0094 | ~2 s* | 66 |
| Polygon PoS | $0.0016 | 0.017 | ~5 s | 58 |
| BNB Smart Chain | $0.0022 | 0.022 | ~3 s | 66 |
| Arbitrum One | $0.0032 | 0.032 | ~1 s* | 61 |
| Ethereum | $0.025 | 0.25 | ~13 min | 51 |
| Tron | $2.11 | 21.1 | ~1 min | 36 |
Last updated · live gas via public RPCs, prices via CoinGecko
Read this comparison honestly
The stablecoin figures above cover only the on-chain transfer. A real remittance on this corridor also needs an on-ramp (getting from Saudi Arabia currency into stablecoins) and an off-ramp (getting into Pakistan local currency in the recipient's hands), and both legs carry fees and FX spread that vary by provider and are not measured here. The incumbent figure, by contrast, is the World Bank's surveyed all-in cost — $10.04 on a $200 send, $50.20 at the same rate on $1,000. What the gap between the two numbers measures is the headroom: the margin available to anyone who can build cheap, compliant ramps around a transfer leg that costs a fraction of a percent (currently ~8.1 bps blended).