Episode 18 – Christoph Koster on Islamic Finance, Crypto & Banking for Web3

In this episode of Tech It or Leave It, Nikita Sachdev, Founder of Luna PR, sits down with Christoph Koster, CEO of Ruya, at the Future Blockchain Summit. Christoph shares his journey from European banking and crisis-era restructuring to launching Ruya, a fully digital, 100 percent Sharia-compliant Islamic bank built for the UAE’s fintech and Web3 ecosystem. The conversation explores how Ruya is building core banking and banking-as-a-service infrastructure for startups, fintechs, and crypto platforms, why access to banking remains a bottleneck for founders, and how stablecoin rails and digital assets are being integrated into regulated financial systems. They also discuss the alignment between Islamic finance principles and digital assets, and what it takes to bridge traditional banking with crypto-native infrastructure at scale. This episode is for founders, fintech operators, Web3 builders, and investors focused on the future of banking, Islamic finance, and digital asset infrastructure.