By Hissan Ur Rehman

In 2022, Pakistan shocked the world by ranking #6 in global crypto adoption, beating countries with far more developed financial systems.

Fast forward to 2025, and we’re still hanging in the top 10 now ranked #9 in crypto adoption. A cause for celebration? Not quite.

Let’s juxtapose this with a cold, hard fact: Pakistan’s stock market has fewer than 400,000 retail investors.

That’s ten times fewer than Bangladesh, a country we often compare ourselves to. Yes, Bangladesh has over 4 million active retail accounts in its stock exchange.

Let that sink in. Pakistanis are savvy enough to understand Web 3.0, master blockchain concepts, and even navigate Binance, one of the world’s largest (and shadiest) crypto exchanges.

Yet, they won’t touch their own stock market—a regulated, real-economy-backed platform with a ten-foot pole.

Why? The answer lies not in illiteracy, but in misguided economic priorities and unchecked financial escapism.

Binance: A Money Laundering Paradise

Let’s be honest: Binance has morphed into a parallel, decentralized banking system a place where dollars fly out of Pakistan unchecked, unverified, and unquestioned.

No documentation. No scrutiny. Just seamless cross-border transactions.

And yet, in a bizarre twist, Pakistani policymakers recently welcomed Binance's jailed founder yes, the same man convicted of money laundering in the U.S. and sentenced to four months in prison.

While the U.S. government slapped him with criminal charges, our economic visionaries posed for selfies. Are we serious about financial integrity or just chasing trends with blindfolds on?

Cryptocurrency: A Mirage, Not a Miracle

Some argue crypto could help Pakistan utilize its unused energy capacity.

But here's a more rational suggestion: revive the textile factories of Faisalabad, the steel units of Karachi, the cottage industries of Gujranwala factories that shut down due to crippling interest rates and rising energy costs.

Don’t funnel energy into powering Bitcoin mining rigs while millions remain jobless and our exports decline.

This isn’t innovation it’s economic escapism.

Learn From China, Not Wall Street

In 2008, America’s subprime mortgage bubble cheered on by Wall Street triggered a global financial meltdown.

Everyone was doing it, everyone thought it was genius until it wasn’t.

Let’s not fall into the same trap with crypto.

China, with all its tech-forward infrastructure, didn’t throw open the gates to crypto anarchy.

Instead, it launched its own central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) a controlled, sovereign response to the digital age. That’s the model Pakistan needs.

Crypto’s Unique Selling Proposition is non-regulation. The more you try to regulate it, the more it slips away.

If your whole appeal is being lawless, how do you make it law-abiding? You can’t. And if you ban it, yes, people will use VPNs. But that’s no reason to invite crypto chaos through the front door.

Time to Wake Up

Pakistan’s top establishment isn’t the real problem it’s the economic policy advisors pushing a flawed vision, glamorizing crypto while ignoring real economy fundamentals.

Crypto is a global reality, yes. But so is heroin and we don’t legalize that to stimulate exports.

Let’s stop chasing glitter and start building substance. Let’s educate our youth about capital markets, revive our industries, and channel our dollars into local investment—not into offshore wallets via untraceable coins.

It’s time to be bold but not blind.

The writer is a graduate of LUMS and MBA in Consulting from UK. He teaches financial markets in Pakistan and can be reached at hissan3@gmail.com

Posted on: 2025-04-15T14:07:53+05:00