Pakistan Curated

DeFi Intel Research Desk2026-07-18Asia

Is crypto legal in Pakistan? (2026)

Yes — cryptocurrency is legal and now regulated in Pakistan. Current status: Legal — VASP licensing regime under PVARA (new). Oversight sits with the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and SECP in supporting roles. Full details — governing law, licensing, tax and dated enforcement history — follow below (last reviewed 2026-07-18).

Framework: Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025 (promulgated 8 July 2025) establishing PVARA; Virtual Assets Act 2026, passed by Parliament in March 2026, placing PVARA on a permanent federal statutory footing; Pakistan Crypto Council (launched 14 March 2025). Reverses the State Bank of Pakistan's April 2018 banking-sector prohibition.

Pakistan has shifted from prohibition toward regulation. In April 2018 the State Bank of Pakistan barred banks and payment institutions from dealing in or facilitating virtual currencies, and the policy debate through 2020–2023 leaned toward an outright ban. That posture reversed in 2025: the government launched the Pakistan Crypto Council on 14 March 2025, and on 8 July 2025 the President promulgated the Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025, creating the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) as an autonomous federal regulator to license and supervise virtual-asset service providers (VASPs). Parliament then passed the Virtual Assets Act 2026 (reported March 2026), placing PVARA on a permanent statutory footing. Virtual assets are lawful to hold and trade but are expressly not legal tender — the Pakistani rupee, issued by the SBP, remains the sole legal tender. Any business offering crypto services — exchange, custody, wallet, token issuance or investment — must be licensed by PVARA, and unlicensed operation carries fines up to PKR 50 million and up to five years' imprisonment.

Tax treatment

Pakistan does not yet have a dedicated crypto tax statute, and specific rates are pending verification as the government formalises a regime. Reporting through mid-2026 indicates the authorities intend to tax crypto in the annual budget cycle, with the Pakistan Crypto Council and IMF discussions pointing toward taxing crypto income (mining, staking, trading and payments) under the ordinary income-tax schedule rather than a bespoke crypto rate. Treat the figures below as provisional pending an enacted measure.

• Capital-gains / income rate (crypto): Pending verification — expected to follow ordinary income-tax rules
• Holding-period rule: None specified — pending verification

Travel rule applicability

Status: being implemented under PVARA's AML/CFT framework. The Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025 brings VASPs into Pakistan's AML/CFT perimeter and commits PVARA to FATF-aligned supervision, including FATF Recommendation 16 (the travel rule). Because the licensing regime is new, specific transfer-data thresholds and enforcement timelines are pending verification against PVARA's implementing rules.

Notable enforcement and regulatory events

• April 2018. The State Bank of Pakistan bars banks and payment providers from dealing in or facilitating virtual currencies — the prohibition that defined Pakistan's stance for the following years.
• 14 March 2025. The government launches the Pakistan Crypto Council to shape a national digital-assets strategy.
• 8 July 2025. The President promulgates the Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025, establishing PVARA as the licensing and supervisory authority for VASPs.
• December 2025. PVARA issues preliminary No-Objection Certificates to major exchanges, including HTX and Binance, opening the formal licensing pathway.
• March 2026. Parliament passes the Virtual Assets Act 2026, giving PVARA a permanent statutory basis.
• April 2026. PVARA publishes Regulatory Sandbox Guidelines, and the State Bank of Pakistan authorises banks to open accounts for PVARA-licensed VASPs.

Public licensed CASP list

PVARA opened its licensing process in stages: as of mid-2026 it was issuing No-Objection Certificates (an early step, granted to exchanges including HTX and Binance in December 2025) ahead of full VASP licences. No consolidated public register of fully licensed VASPs had yet been published at the time of review. DeFi Intel will mirror PVARA's official register once it is published — consult PVARA (pvara.gov.pk) for current status. Submit known Pakistan VASPs to research@defi-intel.com.

Comparison to neighbours

Compare Pakistan crypto regulation with three geographically adjacent jurisdictions:

Doing business in Pakistan — practical notes

Pakistan has moved from prohibition to a licensing regime: serving Pakistani residents with exchange, custody, wallet or token-issuance services now requires a PVARA licence, and operating without one is a criminal offence (fines up to PKR 50 million and up to five years' imprisonment). The framework is brand new — the Ordinance dates from July 2025 and the Act from 2026 — so implementing rules, capital requirements and the full licensing queue are still being built out; expect procedures to evolve. Banking access improved in April 2026 when the SBP authorised banks to serve PVARA-licensed VASPs, and a regulatory sandbox is open for novel products. Crypto is not legal tender, tax treatment is not yet settled, and firms should verify current PVARA requirements before structuring.

Methodology and sources

This profile aggregates primary regulatory communications, FATF mutual-evaluation reports, IMF Article IV staff reports, and DeFi Intel's enforcement-action database. Curated profile — last verified 2026-05-03. Where data is marked "pending", the regulator either has not published authoritative guidance or DeFi Intel has not yet completed source verification. We do not republish unverified third-party datasets.