Pakistan Lifts Crypto Banking Ban: Seven-Year Prohibition Ends with Virtual Assets Act 2026

Pakistan's Central Bank lifts its seven-year ban on cryptocurrency services, allowing licensed banks to provide banking services to crypto businesses under the newly enacted Virtual Assets Act 2026. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) notified all banks to open accounts for licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs), marking first formal banking integration for crypto sector. Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) established to oversee exchanges and digital asset service providers. Move positions Pakistan as a progressive South Asian crypto jurisdiction ahead of India.

High impact🇵🇰 PakistanRegulationExchangeCustodyBTCETHUSDTPVARAState Bank of Pakistan

APAC FINSTAB analysis

For APAC operators, this creates a high-impact signal around regulation, exchange, custody in Pakistan. Protocols/assets in scope: BTC, ETH, USDT. Named institutions or platforms: PVARA, State Bank of Pakistan. Teams should monitor the original source, map the change to licensing, custody, disclosure, and market-access obligations, and update their jurisdiction playbooks before the next compliance review.

Compliance read-through: map this event to entity licensing, market-access, custody, disclosure, token listing, and operational-risk obligations before expanding or marketing in the affected jurisdiction.

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