Pakistan's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened its licensing portal after formally notifying regulations covering crypto exchanges and other virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in the country.

Companies that have provided virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit an application for a no-objection certificate (NOC) by Sept. 5 or cease operations, according to the PVARA licensing website. Continuing to operate after the deadline without filing an application will constitute an offense, PVARA said in a Saturday press release published by the Associated Press of Pakistan.

"The licensing window is officially open, creating a clear pathway for businesses to enter Pakistan's regulated virtual asset market, with defined standards for consumer protection, governance, compliance and market integrity," PVARA said on LinkedIn.

The launch shifts Pakistan's crypto framework from legislation into enforcement, requiring both domestic and overseas VASPs to enter the formal licensing process or stop serving the market. It also marks a policy reversal for a country where the State Bank of Pakistan advised banks in 2018 not to process virtual-currency transactions and where the sector had operated without a dedicated legal framework.

The market being brought under oversight is substantial: Pakistan, the world's fifth-most-populous country with more than 240 million people, has ranked among the leading emerging markets in Chainalysis' annual Global Crypto Adoption Index, and its workers abroad send home tens of billions of dollars in remittances each year.

New regulations clear path to full crypto licenses

The framework covers activities including exchanges, custody, broker-dealer services, lending, derivatives, asset management, token issuance and mining-related services. VASPs can pursue an NOC before incorporating locally or enter a regulatory sandbox to test products under PVARA supervision before seeking a full license.

Licensed providers will be required to keep customer holdings separate from their own assets, and they cannot lend or pledge those holdings without written consent, according to the press release. The framework also imposes requirements covering governance, market conduct, cybersecurity, operational resilience, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing controls.

The rollout followed a public consultation held between June 11 and July 2. PVARA said the final framework provides two routes to licensing: a sandbox pathway for firms testing new products and an NOC pathway for companies preparing to incorporate in Pakistan.

PVARA has already issued NOCs to some firms, including Binance and HTX in December 2025. The preliminary approvals allow the exchanges to establish local subsidiaries and prepare full license applications, a process that can now advance following the notification of the regulations.

With the notification, Pakistan joins a growing list of jurisdictions that require VASPs to hold dedicated licenses rather than operate under general financial rules, alongside the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, which took full effect in December 2024, and Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.

Pakistan's parliament passed the Virtual Assets Act in March, establishing PVARA as the statutory regulator for the sector. The State Bank of Pakistan subsequently allowed banks to provide accounts to licensed VASPs, including segregated client-money accounts. The Act capped a rapid sequence of policy moves that saw Islamabad establish the Pakistan Crypto Council in early 2025 to coordinate digital-asset strategy, while officials also announced plans for a national strategic bitcoin reserve and the allocation of 2,000 megawatts of electricity for bitcoin mining and AI data centers.