Pakistan Completes Virtual Asset Regulatory Framework in Under Six Months

Pakistan has completed its virtual asset regulatory framework in under six months, using about 8% of the approved budget, or roughly $200,000, according to Bilal Bin Saqib, Pakistan’s Minister of State and chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority. According to ChainCatcher, Saqib said the remaining 92% of the budget was not used and argued that success should be measured by delivery rather than spending. The framework covers exchanges, custody, brokerage, asset management, lending, and settlement, and includes requirements for governance, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, customer asset protection, cybersecurity, and market conduct. Saqib said Pakistan’s regulatory focus will also extend to tokenized markets, programmable payments, stablecoins, machine-to-machine transactions, and AI agent economies, adding that rules will be needed for agent payments and the agent economy. He said emerging markets do not need a decade to catch up and can build at the frontier. Pakistan, with more than 240 million people, is being positioned as a potential major market for financial technology, and its rapid shift from legislation to licensing is being presented as a model for next-generation financial infrastructure.