KARACHI: Another step towards Pakistan’s virtual assets framework was taken on Thursday, as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) held a meeting with the chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA).

In a post on X, PVARA Chairman Bilal bin Saqib said he met SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad and discussed issues related to digital asset adoption, the implementation of central bank digital currency and Pakistan’s regulatory road­­map for digital assets.

President Zardari promulgated the Pakistan Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025 on July 8, 2025, with the stated objective of licensing, regulating and supervising virtual assets and virtual asset service providers.

Pakistan has since set up PVARA to regulate virtual-asset and blockchain-related activities.

Separately, the Ministry of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Binance, a global blockchain and digital-asset technology company, to explore potential collaboration, including tokenisation initiatives.

State Bank reserves jump to $15.9bn after IMF disbursement

In a post on Wednesday, Binance said Pakistan had signed an MoU to explore tokenising up to $2bn in state-owned assets.

Under the arrangement, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the initiative could involve blockchain-based distribution of Pakistan’s sovereign bonds, treasury bills and commodity reserves, including oil, gas and metals.

He described the MoU as a signal of Pakistan’s reform trajectory, adding that the “next step for us is execution, and we are fully committed to delivering results with speed and quality”.

Pakistan’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has also issued preliminary clearances to Binance and HTX to begin local licensing processes. The no-objection certificates allow the exchanges to register on the country’s anti-money laundering system and prepare full licence applications, but do not permit them to operate at this stage.

Binance founder Chang­­peng Zhao, who serves as a strategic adviser to the Pakistan Crypto Council, described the MoU as “a great signal” for the global blockchain industry and for Pakistan, and said it marked the beginning of a move towards full deployment of the tokenisation initiative.

Mr Saqib has said Pakistan ranks as the world’s third-largest crypto market by retail activity, with an estimated 40 million users and annual trading volume exceeding $300bn.

In July, the SBP governor said the central bank planned to launch a pilot for a digital currency and was finalising legislation to regulate virtual assets as the government sought to modernise the financial system.

SBP reserves hit $15.9bn

State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves rose to $15.886bn following the receipt of $1.2bn from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to central bank data released on Thursday.

The SBP said that during the week ended Dec 12, its foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.3bn to $15.886bn, mainly due to the receipt of SDR 914 million (equivalent to about $1.2bn) from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility.

The country’s total liquid foreign reserves stood at $21.089bn, including $5.202bn of net foreign reserves held by commercial banks.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2025