Bilal Bin Saqib, chairman of Pakistan's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) and Minister of State, called on developing economies to take an active seat at the table as the rules governing tokenised money are being written. He made the case at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich on June 23 to 25, co-organised by the Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN) and the Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance, a gathering that drew attendees from more than 66 countries, including 80-plus regulators and central bank officials.

"The rules governing money are being rewritten, and Pakistan will help write them," Bin Saqib said at the forum. His core argument was structural: the traditional model of nation-state money, what he called the "one flag, one border, one currency" model, is giving way to software-based financial infrastructure that does not recognise borders. If developing countries stay on the sidelines, they will be left implementing frameworks written for and by wealthier economies.

The timing is pointed. In April 2026, the IMF published a policy note titled "Tokenized Finance" outlining a five-pillar framework covering settlement in safe monetary assets, regulatory consistency, legal clarity, interoperability, and liquidity management. The report explicitly flagged that emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) face greater exposure than developed nations to the destabilising effects of tokenised finance, including capital flight, currency substitution via dollar-denominated stablecoins, and automated sell-off cascades that can move faster than regulators can respond. The framework took shape primarily within advanced-economy institutions, with limited formal input from the developing world. That authorship gap is precisely what Bin Saqib came to Zurich to address.

Bin Saqib moderated a panel session on the evolving multi-money ecosystem alongside a deputy governor from the South African Reserve Bank, pairing two Global South institutions at a forum historically dominated by European and Western voices. He also held closed-door bilateral meetings with central bankers and financial executives from Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Gulf states, and Europe, focusing on how nations can adopt dollar-denominated tokenised systems without surrendering control over their own monetary policy. Separately, he was appointed to the World Economic Forum's Steering Committee on Digital Asset Regulations, a step the Pakistan Finance Ministry said signals the country's growing recognition in global digital asset governance.

Pakistan's position carries weight that figures in Zurich can underestimate. According to Chainalysis's 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Pakistan ranks third worldwide in grassroots cryptocurrency adoption, behind only India and the United States. Roughly 40 million Pakistanis, about 17 percent of the population, were using digital assets before any formal regulatory framework existed. That scale of real-world adoption, built without a licensing regime, gives Pakistan a different kind of governance credential than countries designing crypto policy from a standing start.

The country's domestic regulatory arc reflects that reality. The Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) was established under the Finance Ministry in March 2025, providing the institutional foundation for what followed. PVARA was created by ordinance in July 2025. Binance and HTX received No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from PVARA in December 2025. The Virtual Assets Act 2026 passed parliament and converted PVARA into a permanent statutory body. Pakistan's licensing regime also includes a Sharia advisory committee requirement, a distinctive feature with no direct equivalent in most Western frameworks, positioning the country as a potential governance model for Islamic finance jurisdictions. In April 2026, the State Bank lifted a seven-year ban that had classified crypto transactions as illegal since 2018, allowing SBP Regulated Entities to open accounts for PVARA-approved service providers. Banks, however, remain barred from directly holding or trading crypto.

The remittance dimension gives the policy debate a direct economic stake for the region. Pakistan recorded $38.3 billion in remittances in FY2025, a record and a 27 percent year-on-year increase. Monthly flows hit $4.3 billion in May 2026, another record. The State Bank projects FY2026 totals will reach $42 billion. Much of this money still moves through slow and costly correspondent banking channels. Pakistan has already integrated the USD1 stablecoin into regulated remittance corridors via a partnership with SC Financial Technologies. USD1 is a dollar-pegged token associated with the World Liberty Financial initiative, which carries direct ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, a dimension that adds political weight to Pakistan's decision to adopt it as a remittance instrument. A national stablecoin is also reportedly under development. Beyond remittances, PVARA is exploring the tokenisation of up to $2 billion in domestic sovereign debt, including government bonds and Naya Pakistan Certificates, to open those instruments to overseas Pakistani investors and global retail buyers. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was measured in describing the ambition: "Discussions around tokenised sovereign instruments represent an important exploratory step toward modernising Pakistan's capital markets."

Pakistan is not alone in navigating this terrain at the Global South level. Ghana's Second Deputy Governor Matilda Asante-Asiedu participated in the same Point Zero Forum, signalling convergence among developing-country monetary institutions on core questions around cross-border payments, CBDC design, and tokenised capital markets. South Africa, whose Reserve Bank deputy governor appeared on stage with Bin Saqib during the multi-money ecosystem panel, is equally engaged. Nigeria and Kenya are each running their own regulatory processes. The precedent Pakistan is attempting to set, formalising domestically and then claiming a role in international rule-making, offers a replicable sequence for peers across South Asia and Africa. Whether that sequence translates into actual co-authorship of global standards, or remains largely symbolic, will depend on how much ground developing countries can hold in bodies like the IMF and WEF before the core frameworks are locked in.