Pakistan Turns to Hong Kong for Tokenized Market Expertise

Pakistan is exploring ways to develop its next-generation financial regime by studying Hong Kong's experience in tokenized bond markets. The country's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Chairman, Bilal Bin Saqib, met with Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services, Christopher Hui, and Dr. Kelvin Wong, Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), to discuss digital bond issuance, regulatory innovation, and tokenization.

The goal is to make Pakistani assets more accessible to global investors, which could widen the capital pool available to the country. Tokenization is seen as a key factor in efficient capital formation and operations of financial markets. Hong Kong has already issued several tokenized bonds, including $102M in green bonds in 2023 and its third-largest green bond worth $1.28B last year.

The APAC region recorded the strongest crypto adoption in 2025, according to Chainalysis, with Pakistan being among the top-10 countries with strong adoption rates. The PVARA was formed to license, monitor, and govern the Pakistan crypto industry, and it has set a deadline for existing crypto players to get an operating license or exit the market.