'Pak making progress in digital assets'

Minister of State and Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (Pvara) Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib has said Pakistan has made significant progress in the digital assets sector with limited resources and established a comprehensive regulatory system for virtual assets in less than six months.

He said Pakistan spent only 8% of the approved budget to establish the virtual assets regulatory framework, while Pvara returned 92% of its approved budget to the national exchequer.

According to Pvara, Saqib expressed these views while addressing Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong, where he highlighted Pakistan's rapid and low-cost governance model, which he said had received international recognition.

The Pvara chairman said the virtual assets regulatory framework also incorporated requirements relating to anti-money laundering (AML), counter-financing of terrorism (CFT), protection of customers' assets and cybersecurity.

He said the measure of a government's success should not be its expenditure but its results.