Is cryptocurrency legal in Pakistan?
Every virtual currency comes with advantages as well as disadvantages, some get easily hacked while other companies make their currency as secure as possible and try to make it transparent and flexible to the world laws. That`s why crypto is ban in some countries, in some countries it is hostile and, in some countries, you are allowed to trade crypto without any obstacle.
So, here comes Pakistan, in Pakistan crypto is not illegal and is not allowed to trade either in the group or individually which means it is a hostile currency in Pakistan. On
January 16, 2021, the SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) stated that:
“The SBP has not authorized any individuals or organizations to carry out the sale, purchase, exchange, and investment of virtual currencies, coins, and tokens.”
In the past, when a trader of Bitcoin was arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), when he submitted a petition against the case in the Sindh High Court (SHC), the jury called the deputy director of FIA Abdul Ghaffar to make comments on the petition and clear the matter but, he didn`t appear. The jury again summoned him and this time he stated that:
“The SBP in 2018, made virtual currency trade, exchange, sale or purchase illegal due to which the petitioner was arrested.”
The petitioner said to the SHC to allow the sale, purchase, exchange, and mining of virtual currencies in Pakistan as the people are willing to pay the taxes on the virtual currencies.
On this SBP guarded their statement saying that:
“Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc. are virtual currencies and you can make their sale, purchase or exchange anonymously which could not be traced easily like we trace the paper currency that will not only increase the cases of frauds or terrorism but also increase the cases of money laundering. Furthermore, he stated that people are not aware of the use of virtual currencies at this time which will lead them to huge loss (if they tried to invest blindly, to increase their money). Moreover, he said that the following international payment gateway services are working in Pakistan:
· Union Pay
· Visa
· Mastercard
· Pay Pak
· Payoneer
· Transferwise
· Xoom
· Cyber Source
About allowing PayPal in Pakistan, he said the same thing that these virtual currencies (Given above) are currently working in Pakistan.
He also said that companies like PayPal and Skrill should come and establish their digital payment services in Pakistan.”
So currently, Cryptocurrency is hostile in Pakistan.
But you can trade in Pakistan, not of crypto but of stocks, they are completely legal and there are many companies and banks in Pakistan which are offering you to invest in stocks. The company that allows you to invest in stocks is Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) it has 540 companies registered.
The link of PSX: https://www.psx.com.pk/
Thanks for Reading (Take Care😷).
