Pakistan Sets September 5 Deadline for Crypto Firms to Register

In brief

• Pakistan's virtual assets regulator has opened its licensing portal, with firms operating on or before March 5 required to file for a No Objection Certificate by September 5 or cease operations.
• The Virtual Assets Act 2026 sets out 11 license categories covering exchanges, custody, lending, derivatives, stablecoin issuance and mining.
• Applicants must register a company in Pakistan and clear the Financial Monitoring Unit before a license application.

Crypto firms serving customers in Pakistan have less than a fortnight to begin the country's new licensing process or shut down, under a deadline set by the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.

Companies already providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 this year, when the law commenced, are classed as transitional persons and must submit an application for a No Objection Certificate by September 5. "Operating without submitting an application after that date is an offense," PVARA said, citing Section 70 of the Virtual Assets Act 2026. The portal is also open for full licenses and for a regulatory sandbox.

Chairman Bilal bin Saqib announced the regulations in a televised address on Saturday, telling reporters the framework would protect investors from fraud and bring the market under the rule of law. He described it as doing more than supervising exchanges, arguing that stablecoins and tokenization could open up export financing, remittances and lending to smaller businesses.