Pakistan used its emerging crypto ecosystem and strategic diplomacy to gain favor with Donald Trump and position itself as a key player in the global digital finance landscape
After 25 years of careful, concerted effort between their strategic and foreign affairs communities, India-US relations have faced significant strain in recent months. While certain fundamental areas of contention contribute to it, such as India’s reservations on opening up certain sectors to American trade and the US’s unease over India’s continued purchase of Russian crude oil since the war in Ukraine, the bilateral relationship hit a major stumbling block after the intense four-day India-Pakistan military conflict in May 2025.
The most publicised aspect of this rift was the contradicting versions coming from the American and Indian camps on Trump’s claim that he leveraged impending trade deal discussions with both India and Pakistan to broker a ceasefire. Pakistan, on the other hand, not only acknowledged Trump’s claims but was also the first entity to nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize on this account. Since then, despite Trump’s incessant efforts to seek validation on the above claim from India, India has maintained its stance.
Pakistan, on the other hand, not only acknowledged Trump’s claims but was also the first entity to nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize on this account.
While Trump’s Nobel fixation suffered significant indignation as a result, another aspect of his newfound inclination towards Pakistan stems from a converging interest in cryptocurrency (crypto) between the two sides.
Pakistan’s Emerging Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
Pakistan’s economic woes of recent years are well documented. Perennially marred by socio-political instability, the country suffers from major systemic issues like hyperinflation, stagnant capital formation, plunging foreign reserves, an inefficient bureaucracy and overreliance on remittances from abroad. This has eroded their citizens’ faith in traditional financial systems, leaving many disillusioned and seeking alternative means to safeguard their wealth and economic autonomy. Having narrowly avoided defaulting in 2023, these conditions set the country up uniquely for benefitting from a crypto-based economy.
The Pakistani government officially launched the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) in March 2025 to regulate and integrate blockchain technology and digital assets into its financial landscape. Chaired by the Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb, the PCC aims to formulate policies, foster innovation, and ensure a secure and forward-thinking approach to crypto adoption in Pakistan. The PCC’s governing board includes the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the Federal Law and IT Secretaries, and the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP). Pakistan’s Finance Ministry claims the country “has over 40 million crypto users, with an estimated annual crypto trading volume exceeding USD 300 billion”, even if reports estimate the numbers (though steadily growing) could be lower.
The PCC’s governing board includes the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the Federal Law and IT Secretaries, and the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP).
In April 2025, the PCC appointed Changpeng Zhao, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance, as a strategic adviser on crypto regulation. According to Forbes, Zhao was ranked the 24th richest person in the world in May 2025, with a net worth estimated at US$ 64.8 billion. He continues to own 90 percent of Binance.
In May 2025, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of the PCC since March, as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, with the rank of Minister of State. In the same month, Saqib unveiled Pakistan's first state-backed Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Bitcoin Vegas 2025. Considering that crypto transactions remained illegal in Pakistan till recently, this move was specifically to engage with foreign audiences, and in particular, the US crypto industry. To that effect, Pakistan’s government has allocated 2,000 MW of surplus electricity in the first phase for bitcoin mining and data centers for AI research (also meant to drive future crypto-mining efficiency).
It is important to note here that despite Pakistan’s dire consumer economy being an outcome of crippling governance structures—all of the above initiatives remain government-led—even though this particular digital currency was originally designed to be a hedge against state-controlled financing. An obvious cause of concern for observers of these developments, therefore, is the exposure of critical public resources like national forex reserves and electricity supply to the highly volatile nature of crypto—a medium of exchange (like gold and fiat currency) built upon speculative value. Experts have also flagged certain structural risks in Pakistan’s foray, like legal ambiguity, cyber threats, capital flight, and digital exclusion.
Considering that crypto transactions remained illegal in Pakistan till recently, this move was specifically to engage with foreign audiences, and in particular, the US crypto industry.
To assuage many of the above apprehensions, the Pakistan Digital Asset Authority (PDAA) was setup in May 2025 (reportedly on the advice of Zhao) as the country’s regulatory body, with support from their Finance Ministry and legislators. It is tasked with overseeing block-chain based financial infrastructure, compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, and supervising licensing throughout the sector.
With its citizens holding between US$ 20-25 billion in crypto, Pakistan stands third in global crypto adoption thus far in 2025, only behind India and the US.
Trump Family’s Cryptocurrency Interests
Through his first term, and even shortly after, Donald Trump is on record as a crypto sceptic; describing the digital currency as “not money”, “highly volatile and based on thin air”, and saying Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency,“seems like a scam”. The Biden administration subsequently pursued several major crypto companies aggressively. It was only through strong lobbying and engagement with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024 that the US crypto industry began to build some leverage. Shortly after returning to office, in March 2025, Trump unveiled plans to make America the “crypto capital of the world” and announced the US’s ‘Crypto Strategic Reserve’ with the aim to promote the two big cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) centrally. Pakistan’s “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” initiative announced in Las Vegas in May 2025 by the PCC CEO is modeled on Trump’s efforts. In fact, at the Vegas event, attended by US Vice President JD Vance and the President’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Saqib praised Donald Trump for being “the President who saved crypto”.
Further, the Trump family holds a majority stake in a crypto company, World Liberty Financial (WLF), with its own “stablecoin” USD1. Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange mentioned above, whose Co-Founder, Changpeng Zhao, is a strategic advisor to the PCC, reportedly helped write the code (“smart contract”) for USD1 and then promoted the stablecoin to its 275 million users in April 2025. This has led to over US$ 2 billion worth of USD1 stablecoins to be stored in Binance wallets, returning a yield of tens of millions dollars to the Trump family. In what is being considered a blatant conflict-of-interest scenario for Donald Trump, as US President, Zhao then applied for a pardon from the Trump administration in April, against charges under the US’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) for failing to establish proper money laundering controls at Binance. He pled guilty in November 2023 and spent four months in jail in the US in 2024, from April to September.
A lesson India is learning the hard way, given the pragmatic-bureaucratic traditions of its foreign policy conduct and the comparatively agile nature (even if a byproduct of obvious macro-level desperation) of its adversary Pakistan in this case.
Saqib is also an advisor to WLF. It is understood that Islamabad has signed a “letter of intent” with WLF’s founders to co-operate on blockchain and stablecoin adoption, including Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump’s special envoy (for Russia and the Middle East) Steve Witkoff. Earlier this year, Saqib told the Financial Times that Pakistan’s crypto diplomacy had “allowed us to rebrand Pakistan as a builder—not just beneficiary—in the global innovation ecosystem”.
Conclusion
Throughout the intense geopolitical uncertainty this year, a phenomenon that now has universal acceptance is that the current US President does not follow established protocols and rulebooks to international relations. A lesson India is learning the hard way, given the pragmatic-bureaucratic traditions of its foreign policy conduct and the comparatively agile nature (even if a byproduct of obvious macro-level desperation) of its adversary Pakistan in this case. Beyond transactional opportunism, it remains to be seen if both Pakistan and Donald Trump can leverage cryptocurrency as a strategic pivot going forward, in the mold of military presence or critical mineral deals for example. In response, while India must never abandon the robust principle-led foundations of its international relations, developing a more adaptive strategic framework for creative and nimble tactical solutions to complex challenges emerging out of the changing regional realities is the need of the hour.
Rahul Batra is a geopolitical analyst with extensive experience at the intersection of digital platforms and international affairs.
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