Licensing, regulation and enforcement by the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
In its latest yearly check on how countries regulate crypto firms, published in July, the global money-laundering watchdog lists 68 jurisdictions. Of 57 jurisdictions with a licensing law, Pakistan was the only one to report neither an inspection of a crypto firm nor any enforcement action.
Saturday's Asian Games final was a tradeable contract on crypto prediction markets, and one of them does not block Pakistan. Our gambling law, the betting-app crackdown and PVARA's rules all bear on whether a Pakistani should take part. None gives a clear yes.
You don't need a licence to mine Bitcoin for yourself in Pakistan. You do need one to mine for anyone else. Sixteen months after the government promised 2,000MW to miners, here is what the rules say, what was promised and what has actually happened.
Bitget says its customers lost nothing in last week's $388 million theft, and its P2P market, which lists rupee trades through Easypaisa and JazzCash, reopens on Friday afternoon. Here is what Pakistan's new rulebook would require of an exchange in the same position, and what you can and cannot chec
Binance is not banned in Pakistan, and it holds a no-objection certificate from PVARA. That is not a licence. As of 30 September 2026, no crypto exchange in Pakistan has one.
Pakistan's finance minister and its crypto regulator spent UN week pitching a regulated digital-asset future. The regulator then gave Harvard a test for it: "The public experience is the test." We apply it.
Trust Securities & Brokerage has told the Pakistan Stock Exchange it will apply to PVARA to run custody, exchange and transfer services. Its paid-up capital clears each licence's minimum on its own. Whether it clears all three together is PVARA's call.
A Lahore High Court bail order says receiving rupees for USDT in 2021–23 P2P trades was not, by itself, fraud. It is narrower than the headlines, and more interesting: PVARA told the court P2P trading sits outside its mandate.
PVARA, created by the Virtual Assets Act, 2026, licenses crypto businesses, not holders. What that means for Pakistani crypto users.
Pakistan has had a crypto law in force since March 2026, but no exchange holds a licence yet — here is what is settled, and what PVARA has not answered.
PVARA's own 2025 rules give Binance and HTX until about 21 November to seek a full licence. The regulator hasn't said so, and a miss need not be public.
Three days after PVARA's own 5 September NOC deadline passed, its website carries no update, extension or enforcement notice on the matter.
