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Pakistan creates Digital Asset Authority to regulate crypto

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly endorsed the creation of a dedicated body to regulate blockchain-based financial infrastructure in the country.

The Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA) will serve as a regulatory body to oversee licensing, regulate exchanges, custodians, wallets, tokenized platforms, stablecoins and decentralized finance applications, according to a May 21 report from the state-owned broadcaster, PTV.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, federal minister for finance and revenue, told the broadcaster, “Pakistan must regulate not just to catch up, but to lead” in the industry.

“With the PDAA, we are creating a future-ready framework that protects consumers, invites global investment, and puts Pakistan at the forefront of financial innovation,” he said.

Cryptocurrencies, Technology, Pakistan, Bitcoin Mining, Cryptocurrency Exchange
Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue. Source: Pakistan Ministry of Finance

The PDAA will also be tasked with tokenizing national assets and government debt, facilitating monetization of Pakistan’s surplus electricity through regulated Bitcoin mining, and helping startups build blockchain-based solutions at scale.

The new regulatory body was part of a recommendation from the Pak­istan advisory body, the Cryptocurrency Cou­ncil, which was launched on March 14 and has former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao as an adviser.

“This is not just about crypto — it’s about rewriting our financial future, expanding access, and creating new export channels through tokenization, digital finance and Web3 innovation,” said Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of Pakistan’s Crypto Council.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency previously proposed a regulatory framework for digital assets designed to address terrorism financing, money laundering provisions, and Know Your Customer concerns, according to am April 10 report from local newspaper, The Express Tribune.

Pakistan crypto market rises despite early skepticism  

In May 2023, former Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Aisha Ghaus Pasha said that Pakistan would never legalize cryptocurrencies due to the potential for digital assets to circumvent regulations created by the Financial Action Task Force, the supranational organization that polices finance for money laundering. 

Related: Pakistan Crypto Council proposes using excess energy for BTC mining

However, the following year, Pakistan ranked highly in Chainalysis’ 2024 crypto adoption index, coming in ninth, mainly due to strong retail adoption and transactions at centralized services.

Cryptocurrencies, Technology, Pakistan, Bitcoin Mining, Cryptocurrency Exchange
Pakistan ranked highly in Chainalysis’ 2024 crypto adoption index, coming in 9th. Source: Chainalysis

Meanwhile, the online data platform Statista shows Pakistan’s crypto market is “experiencing rapid growth” and estimates the number of crypto users is expected to amount to over 27 million by 2025, out of a population of 247 million.

At the same time, revenue in the Pakistan crypto market is projected to reach $1.6 billion in 2025. The United States still leads the pack, with its crypto market generating an estimated revenue of over $9.4 billion, according to Statista data. 

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Jess Phillips condemns ‘idiot’ councils that don’t believe they have grooming gang problem

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Jess Phillips condemns 'idiot' councils that don't believe they have grooming gang problem

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News that councils that believe they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs are “idiots” – as she denied Elon Musk influenced the decision to have a national inquiry on the subject. 

The minister said: “I don’t follow Elon Musk’s advice on anything although maybe I too would like to go to Mars.

“Before anyone even knew Elon Musk’s name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.”

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Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters
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Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters

Mr Musk had called Ms Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” in one of a series of inflammatory posts on X in January and said she should go to jail.

Mr Musk, then a close aide of US President Donald Trump, sparked a significant political row with his comments – with the Conservative Party and Reform UK calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs.

At the time, Ms Phillips denied a request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on the basis that it should be done at a local level.

But the government announced a national inquiry after Baroness Casey’s rapid audit on grooming gangs, which was published in June.

Asked if she thought there was, in the words of Baroness Casey, “over representation” among suspects of Asian and Pakistani men, Ms Phillips replied: “My own experience of working with many young girls in my area – yes there is a problem. There are different parts of the country where the problem will look different, organised crime has different flavours across the board.

“But I have to look at the evidence… and the government reacts to the evidence.”

Ms Phillips also said the home secretary has written to all police chiefs telling them that data collection on ethnicity “has to change”, to ensure that it is always recorded, promising “we will legislate to change the way this [collection] is done if necessary”.

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Operation Beaconport has since been established, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), and will be reviewing more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation.

Ms Phillips revealed that at least “five, six” councils have asked to be a part of the national review – and denounced councils that believed they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs as “idiots”.

“I don’t want [the inquiry] just to go over places that have already had inquiries and find things the Casey had already identified,” she said.

She confirmed that a shortlist for a chair has been drawn up, and she expects the inquiry to be finished within three years.

Ms Phillips’s comments come after she announced £426,000 of funding to roll out artificial intelligence tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to speed up investigations into modern slavery, child sex abuse and county lines gangs.

Some 13 forces have access to the AI apps, which the Home Office says have saved more than £20m and 16,000 hours for investigators.

The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages and analyse data to find relationships between suspects.

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Fact-checking Farage: Are foreigners more likely than Britons to commit sexual offences?

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Tornado Cash co-founder found guilty on 1 of 3 charges after jury deadlock

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Tornado Cash co-founder found guilty on 1 of 3 charges after jury deadlock

Tornado Cash co-founder found guilty on 1 of 3 charges after jury deadlock

With a sentencing hearing scheduled in a matter of weeks, Roman Storm is potentially looking at five years in jail for running an unlicensed money transmitting service.

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