Is Pakistan banning cryptocurrency?

The federal government of Pakistan announced Wednesday that it has decided to halt cryptocurrency services available on the internet in the country in order to prevent unlawful digital currency transactions, and in accordance with the guidelines of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Ministry of Information Technology have started work on outlawing cryptocurrencies in accordance with the directions.

Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has also set limits, saying that cryptocurrencies will "never be legalised in Pakistan."

She insisted that "FATF had set a condition that cryptocurrency will not be legalised."

According to SBP Director Sohail Jawad, who agreed with Pasha's opinions, cryptocurrency transactions are "high risk" and won't ever be authorised in Pakistan.

He explained that cryptocurrency is virtual currency and that more than 16,000 different varieties have so far been created, noting that the $2.8 trillion market has since decreased to $1.2 trillion.

Saleem Mandviwalla, a senator for the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP), expressed concern about the enormous sums of money being invested in the market. 

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), a financial intelligence body that aids Pakistan in the fight against terrorism financing and money laundering, are working on this, the SBP official said in response to the concerns.

As interest in connected social media content and online exchange transactions rises, there has been a boom in Bitcoin trading and mining in Pakistan.

Up until April 2018, when the government outlawed trading and mining of virtual currencies, cryptocurrency mining was a thriving industry in Pakistan. Even though many mining farms have been closed since this prohibition was put into place, the mining business is still expanding.

The majority of exchanges run on ghost partners and never appear on regulatory radars. The government, however, has been working nonstop to curtail cryptocurrency trading.