The government has been ordered to regulate cryptocurrency by the Sindh High Court within three months and appointed a committee to investigate the matter, led by the federal finance secretary.
A two-judge court led by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha was hearing a petition challenging the cryptocurrency ban, with members of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and the petitioners in attendance.
The high court also ordered a three-month report on the case. The court ruled that actions to regulate cryptocurrencies should be conducted in cooperation with all stakeholders, including representatives from the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and the law and information technology ministries.
Another case involving cryptocurrencies was heard in Lahore High Court, with lawyers representing the parties in attendance, including the SECP, SBP, FIA, and the federal government.
After a meeting, the LHC requested legal help from the institutions and asked them to present legal points about the currency in court.
Reza Baqir, the governor of the country’s central bank, stated in April that the authority was looking into cryptocurrencies and their potential for bringing off-the-books transactions into a regulatory framework.
There are a plethora of Pakistan-based social media groups describing how to trade and mine cryptocurrencies, some with tens of thousands of Facebook followers. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen cryptocurrency videos in Urdu on YouTube.
Hundreds of Pakistani traders are listed on online cryptocurrency exchanges, most of which are headquartered outside of Pakistan, such as Localbitcoins.com, which has thousands of transactions.
According to online analytics firm SimilarWeb, apps like Binance and Binomo, which track and trade cryptocurrencies, have more downloads than some of the country’s top banks’ apps.
Cryptocurrency is being used by an increasing number of people around the world for a variety of operational, investment, and transactional objectives. Others are drawn to its user autonomy and pseudonymous transactions, while some admire its ability to enable simple, real-time, and secure money transfers. Because crypto payments have low transaction fees for foreign payments, many people have turned to it for international transactions.
Pakistan has witnessed an incredibly thrilling journey towards leading change by stepping on the cryptocurrency adoption bandwagon.
