Someone in your family has probably asked this in the last year: is Bitcoin legal in Pakistan? If you searched for the answer, you found old articles saying it is banned. That answer is out of date. In 2026 Pakistan passed the Virtual Assets Act and replaced the old ban with a licensing system. Here is what the law says now, in plain English.
Is cryptocurrency legal in Pakistan?
Yes. Buying, holding and selling cryptocurrency is legal in Pakistan as of 2026. The change came with the Virtual Assets Act, 2026, which Parliament passed in March 2026 and the President signed on 4 March. It was published in the official Gazette on 5 March.
But there are limits. Crypto is not legal tender, so no shop or bank has to accept it as payment. And the business of crypto, like running an exchange or a wallet service, now needs a licence from a new regulator called PVARA. Doing that without a licence is a criminal offence.
Where the old ban came from
For years the answer really was "banned". On 6 April 2018 the State Bank of Pakistan issued a circular that stopped banks from dealing in virtual currencies. That circular, BPRD Circular No. 03 of 2018, is the source of almost every "crypto is illegal" article you have read.
The change started in 2025. The government set up the Pakistan Crypto Council to study digital assets. In July 2025 the President signed the Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025, which created PVARA, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. An ordinance only lasts a set time, so Parliament turned it into a permanent law. The Senate passed the bill on 27 February 2026 and the National Assembly passed it on 3 March.
The State Bank then replaced its 2018 circular with BPRD Circular Letter No. 10 of 2026. Banks can now open accounts for licensed crypto exchanges, with strict conditions. The blanket ban is gone.
Who regulates crypto now
PVARA is the regulator. It sits under the Ministry of Finance in Islamabad. It licences exchanges, wallet companies, custody services and token issuers, and it makes sure they follow anti money laundering rules.
It has already started. In December 2025 PVARA gave no objection certificates to Binance and HTX, two of the biggest exchanges in the world. On the same day Pakistan signed an agreement with Binance to explore tokenising up to two billion dollars of sovereign assets. An NOC is not a full licence. It is the first formal step toward one. We covered the details in an earlier post on whether Binance is legal in Pakistan.
Full licences are being rolled out. Exchanges that were already operating when the Act came into force had until 5 September 2026 to apply for an NOC or shut down, under Section 70 of the Act. That deadline has passed.
What you can legally do
- Buy and hold crypto. Owning Bitcoin or USDT is legal. You do not need anyone's permission.
- Keep it in your own wallet. A wallet where you hold the keys is not a licensed service.
- Sell or trade it. Legal, but use a platform that is inside PVARA's licensing process.
- Mine for yourself. Mining your own coins is not a licensed activity. Only mining services that handle other people's money need a licence.
People who mined Pi Network on their phones ask about this a lot. The legal status of Pi Network in Pakistan follows the same rules: holding is fine, running a service for others is not.
What is still illegal or risky
Running a crypto business without a licence is the big one. Under the Virtual Assets Act, operating an exchange, wallet service or custody service without PVARA approval is a criminal offence. The regulator's own FAQ says the penalties include fines up to 50 million rupees, imprisonment and seizure of assets.
Crypto is not legal tender. A virtual asset is the law's name for digital money like Bitcoin or USDT, and the law is clear that it is not legal tender. Nobody has to accept it for a debt. If someone promises to pay you in crypto, you are taking a risk.
Banks cannot trade crypto with their own money or with customer deposits. The new State Bank circular only lets banks serve licensed exchanges, and even those accounts have strict limits. No cash deposits and no cash withdrawals through them.
Scams are still scams. The law change did not make fake investment apps legal. Fraud is still a crime under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, and the Financial Monitoring Unit watches suspicious money movement. An app that promises guaranteed returns is a scam, whatever the new law says.
What about tax
There is no separate crypto tax law yet. That does not mean crypto is tax free. The Federal Board of Revenue treats crypto gains under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, as this 2026 guide to crypto tax in Pakistan explains. Frequent trading counts as business income. Selling coins you held for a while counts as capital gains. Staking and airdrops fall under other sources.
The practical rule is to keep records of every buy and sell. If money lands in your bank account and you cannot explain where it came from, it can be treated as unexplained income. A dedicated crypto tax law is being discussed, but nothing is final.
If your interest is currency markets rather than coins, the rules for forex trading legally in Pakistan are a different law entirely. And if your interest is the stock market, the rules for share trading in Pakistan are yet another law.
What this means for you
If you already hold crypto, nothing changes overnight. You can keep it. If you want to trade, use a platform that is inside PVARA's licensing process, not a random app that promises easy money. Keep your records, and treat any "guaranteed profit" pitch as a fraud.
Before you trust any "guaranteed profit" trading app, read whether IQ Option is legal in Pakistan too. Pakistan banned most of them in 2025.More plain English legal guides for Pakistan are on the Lexiber blog. Marriage law works differently from crypto law, so read whether is cousin marriage legal in Pakistan before you assume. The law is also different for everyday substances: the rules on alcohol in Pakistan ban it for Muslims and allow it for non-Muslims only under a permit.
VPNs sit in the same category of tools people ask about every day, and the answer is more nuanced than it looks: read whether using a VPN is legal in Pakistan before you assume.Ask Lexiber free in English or Urdu. It shows you the exact section behind every answer.
