Crypto firms serving customers in Pakistan face a September 5 deadline to begin the country's new licensing process or shut down, according to the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA). Companies that were providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit an application for a No Objection Certificate by that date.
PVARA Chairman Bilal bin Saqib announced the regulations during a televised address, stating that the framework aims to protect investors from fraud and bring the market under the rule of law. He noted that the regulations extend beyond supervising exchanges to include stablecoins and tokenization.
The Virtual Assets Act 2026 establishes 11 license categories, which include exchanges, custody, broker-dealer work, advisory services, lending and borrowing, derivatives, discretionary asset management, transfer and settlement, mining infrastructure, and the issuance of pegged tokens. Firms are permitted to apply for more than one category.
Applicants must be registered as a company in Pakistan under the Companies Act 2017, meet category-specific minimum paid-up capital requirements, pass fit and proper tests for directors and key staff, and implement anti-money laundering systems alongside cybersecurity and business continuity plans. Licensed entities are also required to keep customer holdings separate from their own assets and cannot lend or pledge them without written consent.
To secure a license, applicants must first obtain an No Objection Certificate, register with Pakistan's Financial Monitoring Unit, incorporate a local subsidiary, and submit the final application. PVARA was established by presidential ordinance in July 2025 and made permanent by the recent Act to regulate Pakistan's crypto market, which ranked third in Chainalysis' 2025 global crypto adoption index.
