According to a Business Recorder news item, the Senate’s cabinet panel has accorded its approval to the Virtual Assets Bill, 2025, which is at present only a government legislative draft that seeks to establish a regulatory authority for the licencing, regulation, and supervision of virtual assets and their services providers across the country.
As per the newspaper report, the Section 6 of the ‘bill’ provides for the establishment of the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, an autonomous corporate body empowered to licence, regulate and supervise virtual asset service providers in Pakistan, and the authority would also be empowered to “protect customers and investors dealing in virtual assets by establishing and enforcing appropriate safeguards and conduct of business requirements.”
It is, however, important to note that Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental watchdog, has already warned that regulating virtual assets service providers is challenging for all.
National authorities, therefore, “need to develop skills to understand the technology involved, while service providers have to understand and apply financial rules that apply to the sector”.
FATF’s outlook in relation to virtual assets is highly important mainly because of the fact that the country exited its grey list in October 2018, and it remains under follow-up monitoring since then. Hence the need for treading the virtual assets path carefully, prudently and cautiously.
Ahmad Raza (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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