Pakistan’s relationship with Bitcoin has been marked with inconsistency and confusion in recent years. Initially, the country prohibited Bitcoin trading in 2018, citing concern for fraud, money laundering and lack of regulation. However, over time, their position has softened and the regulators began to explore the technology behind Bitcoin with the courts also questioning the legality of the ban. In the end, citizens were allowed to keep Bitcoin, although the trade remained dark and not regulated. This approach back and forth has created a confused environment, in which Bitcoin exists in a legal gray area. It is technically allowed, but not completely embraced or regulated, reflecting the struggle of the state to balance innovation with control.
This confused relationship with Bitcoin seems to have shot a corner in recent weeks while Bilal Bin Saqib, head of the Crypto Council of Pakistan, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas announced that the country is moving to establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. In addition, he announced the assignment of 2,000 megawatts of excess energy to Bitcoin Mining and at high -performance computer data centers. The Ministry of Finance has also commissioned the establishment of a completely new agency to supervise the regulation of digital activities that could lead to a less opaque legal framework on the property and use of bitcoin in daily transactions.
Critics claimed that this is simply an attempt by Pakistan to be welcoming to Trump in the aftermath of the recent scaramuccia with India. After all, saqib Done Declare that Pakistan was inspired by the Trump administration when he spoke to the recent Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas. Others said that Pakistan is simply trying to build resistance to possible sanctions in the future compared to its support for terrorist groups. I believe that such a criticism geopolitically focused on a deeper economic reality that has set Pakistan in the face for many years.
I wrote an article for a Pakistani newspaper about a year ago in which I claimed that the country is located uniquely, in economic terms, to exploit Bitcoin and unlock the benefits that derive from adoption. Pakistan suffers from rampant inflation, formation of stagnant capitals, exhausted foreign reserves, an inefficient bureaucracy and excessive dependence on remittances from abroad. These systemic issues have eroded the trust of citizens in traditional financial systems, leaving many disillusioned Pakistans and in search of alternative means to safeguard their wealth and economic autonomy.
Therefore, nourishing a culture of Bitcoin adoption could do a lot to relieve most of these economic evils and authorize citizens to take control of their financial future. By gaining and negotiating a form of currency of deflationary nature, the Pakistani can protect themselves from the negative aspects of the macroeconomic tendencies that have decimated the living standards of this once proud. Bitcoin’s adoption could transform the lively sector of the country’s remittances, with receivers who maintain more money that are sent. People from the inefficient banking system could also emancipate which is such a drainage for people. Transactions without permission could also give power to the besieged minorities that often struggle to achieve financial freedom.
The announcement of a strategic Bitcoin reserve, as well as promises to introduce pro-Bitcoin regulation and a mining strategy, are steps in the right direction. They show that the mood is moving and the country is starting to take a serious look at the only true digital currency in the city. These passages also indicate a wider and wider movement of attitudes against Bitcoin, especially in the nations where hyperinflation is a daily reality and the banking system struggles to meet the needs of citizens.
However, the real change will only come when Pakistan completely legalizes Bitcoin as a digital currency and takes measures for mass adoption. Only Then Ordinary Pakistani citizens will be free to trade with people from all over the world without the need to rely on the local banking system. Only Then Financial autonomy will become an objective achievable for those who live away from the big cities where banks are based. Only Then Women will be free to earn, archive and translate into a digital currency resistant to cultural barriers.
The creation of a national strategic reserve simply reports that a nation believes in Bitcoin as a resource with the potential to offer a reliable return. It does not point out that a nation has adopted the digital currency as a means to overcome the obstacles imposed by Fiat. The strategic national reserves also accumulate Bitcoin and bring it closer to the state, even if the digital currency has been designed to be a hedge against money controlled by the state. As such, a reserve does not unlock the true Bitcoin potential to act as a bearing against home inflation, the devaluation of the currency and a cumbersome banking system.
A strategic bitcoin reserve is a step in the right direction for Pakistan, as it would be for any nation that suffers from hyperinflation. But only the adoption of mass will really unlock the immense potential that Bitcoin can offer to a nation like Pakistan and we still have a long way to go that becomes a reality.
In my opinion, the strategic reserves are not what Bitcoin is about, but we hope this is simply the first step in a long and prosperous journey towards an orange nation.