Islamabad: In a historic shift, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir on Saturday held high-level talks with a Binance delegation led by Global CEO Richard Teng, signaling Pakistan’s strong commitment to regulated digital assets.
The meeting, also attended by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and PVARA Chairman Bilal bin Saqib, follows Friday’s consultative session at the Finance Division where central bank officials, commercial bank heads, and Binance executives discussed Pakistan’s National Digital Asset Framework.
The government emphasized building a secure ecosystem with licensed Virtual Asset Service Providers, robust on/off-ramp infrastructure, enhanced AML/CFT compliance, and integration of citizen-held crypto into formal financial monitoring, without granting legal tender status. Officials described digital asset adoption as an “irreversible global trend” that offers economic opportunities through better financial visibility and credit assessment.
Despite Bilal bin Saqib’s recent resignation as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, he continues to lead the autonomous Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. The rare civil-military engagement with the world’s largest crypto exchange marks Pakistan’s decisive pivot from its earlier blanket ban toward a regulated, innovation-friendly digital asset market.