PANews reported on May 21 that according to Brecorder, the Pakistani Ministry of Finance announced that the government has officially established the Digital Asset Authority (PDAA) to fully regulate the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. The agency will be responsible for the issuance of licenses and compliance management for market entities such as exchanges, custodians, stablecoins and DeFi applications, aiming to build a regulatory framework that meets FATF standards.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Pakistan Cryptography Commission (PCC), said that the PDAA will promote the compliance of the informal crypto market with a scale of US$25 billion and explore innovative applications such as national asset tokenization and government debt digitization. The new regulations will not only involve crypto assets, but also open up new financial export channels through tokenization and Web3 innovation. This move makes Pakistan another emerging market to establish a dedicated digital asset regulatory agency after the UAE and Singapore.