Pakistan Is Moving at Startup Speed on Digital Assets. The World Is Starting to Notice

Pakistan is making rapid progress in regulating digital assets, standing out as an unusual global technology story. After enacting the Virtual Assets Act in March 2026, the country quickly issued detailed regulations and opened a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers by August 2026. This puts Pakistan's regulatory rollout ahead of other major markets like Dubai and Hong Kong, which took 11 and 6 months respectively to issue comprehensive regulations and commence licensing, respectively.

What makes Pakistan's approach notable is its cost efficiency - the PVARA used only 8% of its budget during the initial buildout, returning 92% to the national exchequer. The Ministry of State's Chairman of PVARA, Bilal Bin Saqib, argues that governments should be measured by their achievements, not the spending. This approach aligns with Pakistan's goal of preparing for tokenised markets, programmable payments, and eventually an agentic economy.

Despite being known globally for security, political instability, debt, and macroeconomic stress, Pakistan is now emerging as a potential leader in digital asset regulation. The country can leverage this momentum to position itself as a hub for technology-driven governance and execution, moving beyond just crypto adoption to embrace tokenisation, programmable finance, and AI-driven economic actions.

However, the challenge remains to translate this execution culture into world-class supervision, investment, and innovation.