Govt moves to regulate digital assets as informal users hit 40 million

LAHORE: State Minister and Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib said on Saturday that Pakistan is advancing work on a regulatory framework for digital assets as the use of blockchain-based technologies continues to grow.

Speaking at the Leadership Summit on Blockchain and Digital Assets hosted by the Lums Centre for Digital Assets Research, he told policymakers and experts that the government needed to move decisively to bring a large number of digital asset users into the formal financial system. He said regulation should support innovation while also protecting consumers.

Mr Saqib said about 40 million Pakistanis were already involved in digital assets, mostly through informal platforms that operate outside regulatory oversight. He said this trend presented both opportunities and risks.

“The universe rewards action, not intelligence,” he said, stressing the need for timely implementation as technology changes rapidly.

According to the state minister, one of the main priorities is to shift users from informal channels into the documented economy in order to curb exploitation and improve financial inclusion.

He also highlighted the possible economic impact of blockchain-based systems, pointing to Pakistan’s annual remittance inflows of around $38 billion. He said these flows could become more efficient through blockchain-based settlement mechanisms.

Mr Saqib further referred to the country’s growing freelance economy and said clearer regulation could improve Pakistan’s competitiveness in international markets.

He said Pakistan had developed an approach to digital asset regulation within a short period, adding that this had been made possible through institutional backing and policy direction. He said the framework would follow a risk-mitigated model and would include sandbox environments for testing new technologies.

Asset-backed tokenisation, he said, has been identified as an initial area of focus. He added that this could broaden access to investment by allowing smaller-scale participation in real estate and financial instruments.

The PVARA chairman also warned that any delay in regulation could increase dependence on unregulated systems because of the scale of existing adoption. He said Pakistan now had a chance to contribute to global conversations on digital finance instead of only following models developed elsewhere.

Call for coordination and skills development

Mr Saqib called for cooperation among banks, technology companies, academia and regulators to strengthen capacity and build skilled human resources for the sector. “The biggest gap at the moment is talent,” he observed, adding that continuous learning and institutional coordination would be necessary for sustained progress.

His remarks came at a time when the government is discussing digital finance and related regulatory preparedness more broadly, including issues linked to the financial sector’s technological transition.