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Pakistan wants to tokenise its Eurobonds. Cabinet has to say yes first

The finance minister told bankers on Monday that the government is looking at putting some of Pakistan's existing Eurobond debt on a blockchain, and wants cabinet approval before it asks for proposals. Banks, meanwhile, are still barred from holding crypto. Here is what was said, and what was not.

Ammar Khan

Ammar Khan

4 min read
Pakistan wants to tokenise its Eurobonds. Cabinet has to say yes first
Photo by Shubham Dhage / Unsplash

Key takeaways

  • Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on 2 November that the government is reviewing whether to tokenise Pakistan's existing Eurobond debt.
  • He said the government wants cabinet approval before it issues a request for proposals. No bonds, amounts or dates were named.
  • He also said banks remain barred from investing in, trading or holding virtual assets with their own funds or customer deposits.
  • Pakistan's Virtual Assets Act does not settle whether PVARA, the State Bank or the SECP would oversee a tokenised government bond.

Muhammad Aurangzeb gave the keynote, by video, at the "Dialogue on Digital Assets and the Future of Banking" on Monday. The Pakistan Banks' Association ran the event with the Centre for Digital Asset Research at LUMS, according to the PBA's statement. The State Bank, the SECP and PVARA all sent speakers.

The headline item was Eurobonds. "We are in discussions at this point in time, and we are looking forward to the Cabinet approval on this before we move ahead with issuing the RFP on this front," Aurangzeb said, as quoted by the Express Tribune. An RFP is a request for proposals: the step where the government asks banks or technology firms to bid for the work.

So the plan is at an early stage. Cabinet has not approved it, and the government has not yet finalised the proposal. The Tribune's headline said "after cabinet approval", but its own report says the approval is still awaited.

What tokenising a Eurobond would mean

A Eurobond is a dollar bond Pakistan sells to foreign investors under foreign law. The government raised $3 billion this way in September. Tokenising it would mean recording ownership of the bond, or a claim on it, on a shared digital ledger instead of only in the books of the usual settlement firms.

Aurangzeb did not say which bonds, how much debt, or how investors' existing rights would be handled. Changing how an already-issued bond is held usually needs the agreement of its holders and their trustees, which is one reason a firm proposal takes time. He did not say whether Pakistan would work with any particular firm. In December 2025 the finance ministry signed a memorandum with Binance to explore tokenising "up to $2 billion" of sovereign bonds, treasury bills and commodity reserves. Nobody at Monday's event linked that memorandum to the Eurobond plan.

The minister's case rested on remittances, which reached $41.6 billion last year and, he said, could pass $44 billion this year. "Having this as a use case makes a lot of sense from a tokenisation perspective," he said. State Bank Deputy Governor Saleem Ullah named blockchain remittances and Roshan Digital Accounts as areas to explore in a sandbox, according to the PBA. The PBA's statement says PVARA chairman Bilal Bin Saqib flagged "supervised, bank-led payment arrangements involving major Gulf remittance corridors" as "worthy of examination".

The SECP struck a more cautious note. According to the PBA's statement, Commissioner Imtiaz Haider said the real question was which assets should be tokenised to deliver economic value, not how assets can be tokenised.

What stays the same for banks

Aurangzeb was direct about one thing: "The restrictions on banks investing, trading, or holding virtual assets using their own funds or customer deposits also remain in place."

That restriction comes from the State Bank's BPRD Circular Letter No. 10 of 2026, issued on 14 April. Paragraph 6 says banks "shall not invest, trade or hold virtual assets using their own funds or customer deposits". The same circular lets banks open accounts for crypto firms that PVARA has licensed, with client money kept in separate accounts. We explained it in detail in our piece on bank accounts and crypto.

He also drew a line between tokens and bank money. "A tokenised bank deposit remains a claim on a bank," he said.

Who would regulate a tokenised Eurobond?

The law does not give a clean answer. As we set out in our reading of the IMF's tokenisation report, the Virtual Assets Act points two ways. Section 2(2)(b) says the Act does not apply to securities and other instruments "that fall within the regulatory jurisdiction of the State Bank of Pakistan or the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan". But the Act's definition of a virtual asset brings regulated securities back in "where represented, issued, or transferred using distributed ledger technology". Section 5(3) gives PVARA the lead on tokenising real-world assets.

A Eurobond adds a further layer: it is governed by foreign law and settled through international systems. Aurangzeb's own closing words point at the gap. "The task now is to make that framework effective in practice through capable supervision and clear coordination among institutions," he said.

What this means for Pakistani users

  • Nothing to buy. Eurobonds are sold to institutional investors abroad, not to retail savers in Pakistan. Nothing said on Monday suggests a tokenised version would be offered to the public. Treat any app or group selling "Pakistan Eurobond tokens" as a scam and report it.
  • Your bank's position has not changed. Banks still cannot put your deposits into crypto. They can only serve PVARA-licensed firms, and no firm is licensed yet.
  • Remittance ideas are ideas. Blockchain remittances and Roshan Digital Account pilots were named as things to explore in a sandbox. No product, provider or launch date was announced.

What we're watching

  • A cabinet decision on the Eurobond proposal, and an RFP naming the bonds, the size and the bidders.
  • Whether PVARA, the State Bank or the SECP is named as the lead regulator for any tokenised government debt.
  • Any sandbox announcement on remittances or Roshan Digital Accounts.
  • The industry workshop at the event, led by J.P. Morgan's Umar Farooq, was meant to identify pilots. The PBA said it would feed a joint industry position to the State Bank, the SECP and PVARA.

Sources

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