Pakistan Crypto Firms Must Register by September 5 or Shut Down
Pakistan's virtual assets regulator has opened its licensing portal for crypto firms to register by September 5. The Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) requires companies operating in or before March 5, when the law commenced, to submit an application for a No Objection Certificate by the deadline.
The Virtual Assets Act 2026 sets out 11 license categories covering exchanges, custody, lending, derivatives, stablecoin issuance, and mining. Applicants must register a company in Pakistan and clear the Financial Monitoring Unit before submitting a license application. This means offshore exchanges with Pakistani users need to establish a local subsidiary to continue operations.
PVARA Chairman Bilal bin Saqib announced the regulations, stating that they aim to protect investors from fraud and bring the market under the rule of law. He described it as doing more than supervising exchanges, arguing that stablecoins and tokenization could open up export financing, remittances, and lending to smaller businesses.