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Pakistan’s government has decided to ban all online services dealing with crypto in the country last Wednesday, May 17, 2023. This comes as a shocking news for crypto investors as well as crypto industry in the country which was just starting to see some boom in a couple of years.

Since the last bull run, Pakistan based crypto wallets have seen exponential growth making Pakistan one of the top crypto traders in the world. This industry has grown from $18 billion to $25 billion industry in just a couple of years and that is an achievement in itself.

But Pakistan’s government stance has never been clearer in this regard. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, the Minister of State for Finance and Revenue stated in a Senate’s Standing Committee that government is banning cryptocurrency trading in the country saying that It will never be legalized. The country is currently fighting many battles on its political and economic landscape which is making it extremely hard to regularize crypto. Pasha further stated that cryptocurrencies pose a significant threat of being used for terrorist activities which is a serious concern for the country at this point. The crypto ban in Pakistan is reportedly to meet FATF’s conditions to avoid ‘Grey list’ which Pakistan has been a part of since 2018 and was removed from it in 2022. To keep complying with FATF’s conditions, crypto trading was banned as Pakistani government deems that allowing cryptocurrencies can help mushroom money laundering and financing of terrorist activities.

State Bank of Pakistan has also reportedly talked about the billion dollars invested in crypto already in the meeting. SBP said that FIA and FMU are working to enforce ban on crypto trading as it is highly risky. The authority said that all transactions are illegal to buy crypto using debit and credit card from now onwards.

Future for crypto traders does look gloomy in Pakistan as government has shown its strict stance on banning crypto for good in the country. In my personal opinion, despite all the political challenges country is facing right now, it should try to adapt to global financial technology as world is adapting to crypto at much faster rate.

Many youngsters believe in crypto and are investing in crypto believing that it can be a solution for their financial woes. The rupee value is constantly declining, inflation is rising and businesses are winding up for lack of exports. In these conditions many youngsters think that crypto investments can be a solution for the issues they are facing and can provide stability financially as the profit anticipation from crypto investment is always huge.

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