Pakistan launched its virtual asset regulatory regime in less than six months while using only 8% of the budget allocated to build it, according to Bilal Bin Saqib, the country’s Minister of State and chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA).
Speaking at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong on Aug. 28, Saqib said about $200,000 was used to build and operationalize the framework, leaving roughly 92% of the approved budget unspent.
“We used only 8% of our approved budget to get this done,” Saqib said. “Government should not measure success by how much money it spends. It should measure success by how much it delivers.”
Pakistan moved from primary legislation to notified regulations and a live licensing regime in under six months, creating a formal pathway for companies operating in the digital asset sector.
The framework covers exchanges, custody, lending and settlement
The regime applies to exchanges, custody, brokerage, asset management, lending and settlement. It also introduces requirements tied to governance, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, customer asset safeguarding, cybersecurity and market conduct.
For Pakistan, the rollout marks a shift toward bringing Bitcoin and digital asset activity into the formal financial system while giving companies a defined structure for operating in the country.
Saqib cast the rollout as a different way for governments to build
Saqib said the launch of PVARA was more than a regulatory milestone. In his view, it also shows how governments can work differently when technology is changing quickly.
Instead of building a large bureaucracy, the authority relied on smaller teams, technology-driven workflows and a focus on delivering a functioning regulatory framework.
“Technology is moving at machine speed. Government has to learn how to move much faster without compromising structure, accountability or consumer protection,” Saqib said.
He added that governments need to balance speed with institutional credibility as emerging technologies continue to develop.
“Speed without structure can be dangerous. But structure without speed can become irrelevant.”
That approach, he said, reflects a broader plan for how Pakistan wants to compete in financial technology. Rather than only adopting tools developed elsewhere, the country wants to take part in building new financial infrastructure.
Pakistan is looking beyond the current crypto market
Saqib said the country’s regulatory goals extend past today’s digital asset market. Pakistan is looking toward an economy shaped more heavily by tokenized markets, programmable payments, stablecoins, machine-to-machine commerce and artificial intelligence agents.
AI agents could eventually transact on behalf of individuals, companies and other machines, raising questions about financial authority, identity, compliance and consumer protection.
Among the issues governments may need to address are who is responsible when an AI agent executes a financial transaction, how delegated authority should work and how anti-money laundering controls can function when machines transact directly with one another.
“Today we are regulating virtual asset service providers,” Saqib said. “Tomorrow we will need regulation around agentic payments and the agentic economy.”
He described Pakistan’s virtual asset framework as an initial building block for that broader financial system.
“Emerging markets do not have to spend the next decade catching up”
Saqib said the strategy is an attempt to compress the traditional timeline for emerging markets, which often adopt financial and technological innovations only after they have matured in larger economies.
“Emerging markets do not have to spend the next decade catching up. We can build at the frontier,” he said.
With a population of more than 240 million, Pakistan could represent a significant market for emerging financial technologies.
For PVARA, the immediate test is whether the new regime can attract legitimate digital asset businesses while preserving the consumer protections and oversight built into the framework.
But Saqib’s remarks went beyond the licensing system itself. Pakistan’s move from legislation to live licensing, completed with only 8% of its approved budget, is being presented as a model for how governments can approach the next generation of financial infrastructure.
The country now wants to apply that same thinking to an economy where digital assets, artificial intelligence and programmable finance increasingly converge.