Let digital literacy sink in before crypto regulation, asset tokenisation: experts

KARACHI: Crypto, stablecoin, blockchain and asset tokenisation are clearly the future of Pakistan, however, the government should let innovation and digital literacy penetrate in the ecosystem before opting to regulate technological advancement in the country, experts and stakeholders have said.

“The financial landscape is reshaping in Pakistan,” they said, speaking at the two-day +92Disrupt conference, organised by Katalyst Lab from December 13 to 14 in Karachi.

Crypto refers to digital currencies that operate on blockchain technology, a decentralised and secure ledger system that records transactions across a network of computers. Blockchain enables transparency, making it ideal for cryptocurrencies.

The experts said stablecoins, a subset of crypto, are designed to maintain a stable value by pegging their worth to assets like the US dollar, offering a hedge against the volatility often seen in other digital currencies. Meanwhile, asset tokenisation is revolutionising the investment space by turning real-world assets — such as real estate, gold or stocks — into tradable digital tokens on the blockchain. Together, these innovations are reshaping the financial landscape, providing new ways to invest, transact, and store value in the digital age, it was learnt.

OPINION: Regulating Pakistan’s crypto ‘boom’

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Has crypto really arrived in Pakistan?’, DAO PropTech Co-founder Owais Barlas said the consensus has developed that asset tokenisation is the future. “How soon or how late Pakistan can go depends on Pakistan as at what pace it wants to move on,” he said.

If you completely rely on regulations that the work would start after the introduction of relevant regulations then this would be a “recipe for disaster. Innovation comes first. Regulations come after. Otherwise you never think out of the box,” he added.

He recalled that cryptocurrencies and their trade were illegal in Pakistan in the recent past. The government is building laws to make it a legal business in the country now, he said.

Citing different studies and projections, Barlas said almost 30-40% world assets can be tokenised by 2030.

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), he said, the size of global asset tokenisation could grow to $16 trillion by 2030. Singapore and UAE among the countries are advancing rapidly in new financial technologies.

He said blockchain and tokenisation are buzzwords and stressed upon the conference participants to build their understanding on these through extensive reading and educating themselves. “Identify what is your need and go for the relevant technology adoption.”

US regulator grants crypto firms initial approval to launch trust banks

Crypto lawyer and digital assets policy expert Mariam Saleem Malik said the evolution of global regulatory framework on crypto and digital assets like the one in the United States suggests that “whenever jurisdiction is low to regulate, innovations lead.”

“The administration of former US President Joe Biden was slow and hesitant to introduce regulation, innovation advanced. And American got advantage of that. The UAE is also having a similar or more sophisticated experience in this regard,” she said.

She said the good news for Pakistan is that the top leadership has recognised the importance of crypto and blockchain in the country. The deployment of such technology has become a national and economic priority. Now, the acknowledgement is not enough. It should be followed by action and enforcement to build up the crypto and blockchain ecosystem, she added.

Mariam further said Pakistan should not pick and choose laws from other jurisdictions and copy and paste, but do the regulations keeping in mind Pakistan’s paint points, culture, demography, economy and it is required to move forward.

BlockApex Co-founder Mujtaba Raza said that the blockchain technology works on multiple layers. The layers help setting records straight, eliminate frauds and theft and bring transparency in businesses like in real estate and banking sectors, he said.

He said that the technologies help bring efficiency and minimise or eliminate errors. However, it does not work like “give it potatoes and it will produce gold,” he added.

XORD Co-founder and Fasset Product Manager Muhammad Salman said, “Crypto adoption has taken place [in Pakistan]. It has happened without regulations. It does not care about the regulations. Now, we are moving in the right direction….trust [on Crypto] is being built with its adoption.”

“Stablecoin is the future,” he said, adding that collaboration is taking place in the world across where work on innovation would get advanced on the decentralised technology and regulators would build trust through regulations. Such a combination of the adoption and trust would help new players to roll out their product and services, he maintained.

Speaking on ‘Let’s not build in isolation’, Sault Ventures CEO and Founder Junaid Iqbal stressed upon investing in education and healthcare system to prepare and create an enabling customers segment and create markets for products in Pakistan. He added that without doing so markets for products and services would shrink in the country, going forwards. “The budget spending on education and healthcare system stand less than 1% of GDP [gross domestic product] on each,” he said.

NOCs to Finance, HTX not blanket approval, first step under supervised framework: PVARA chairman

Junaid argued to cut the tax burden and rate of taxes on salaried class individuals and manufacturing system to achieve sustainable economic growth.

The salaried people have paid more than Rs550 billion in taxes in FY25 compared to less than 1% of GDP by the agriculture sector in the year, he said, adding higher taxes on salaried people are resulting in brain drain and crushing industries.

Speakers at panel discussion on ‘Go viral or go home’, which was moderated by Sumaenah Raza Rizvi, said people should do whatever they have to do to go viral to leave their products and services impact ever-lasting. However, the duration of staying viral remains short like for posts on social media, they said.

Therefore, the panellists developed a consensus that it is not a must for every business to go viral. Business projects should focus on achieving sustainability of earnings and growth in the long-run rather than focusing just on going viral in the short run, they opined.

The panel discussion on ‘The AI paradox: Ethics, benefits and opportunities’, moderated by 4Sight Technologies CEO Nausheen Ashraf said it should be human beings on the other side of the screen or a machine rather than robots all over the workplace. Moreover, the artificial intelligence (AI) should be used to bring efficiencies and creating more jobs, she said.