Pakistan Enacts the Virtual Assets Act, 2026
Pakistan promulgated the Virtual Assets Act, 2026, creating a nationwide statutory framework for virtual-asset service providers and issuers. The law applied across Pakistan and established the legislative basis for federal licensing and supervision of the country's virtual-asset sector.
Pakistan promulgated the Virtual Assets Act, 2026 on March 4, bringing a national virtual-asset framework into law. The act applied throughout Pakistan and took effect immediately, covering virtual-asset service providers operating in or from the country as well as issuers offering or distributing covered virtual assets.
The legislation moved Pakistan beyond temporary or policy-level treatment of the sector by creating a statutory regulatory structure. It provided the legal basis for the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and for licensing, supervision, compliance and later implementing regulations governing virtual-asset businesses.
The act was broader than Bitcoin and should not be characterized as Bitcoin legislation. Its significance to Bitcoin was nonetheless direct enough for the timeline: exchanges, custodians and other services handling bitcoin in Pakistan now operated within a national legal framework rather than an undefined or ad hoc regulatory environment.