Bilal bin Saqib, Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, stated that the country moved to regulate cryptocurrencies due to the existence of a massive, already-active market, with an estimated 40 million citizens trading digital assets in an unregulated environment. He noted that Pakistan now has the third-largest retail cryptocurrency market globally, driven largely by a young, tech-savvy population for whom crypto has become a ladder to wealth. The regulatory body is building a strategic Bitcoin reserve using state-owned assets and plans to launch Bitcoin mining operations in energy-surplus regions as part of the country’s broader strategy for energy optimization and digital infrastructure development.