Pakistan Grants Its First Crypto Licenses to Binance and HTX

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s new Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has handed out its first no-objection certificates, and the earliest names on the list are the world’s largest exchanges: Binance and HTX. It is the first time the state has formally licensed anyone to sell bitcoin to Pakistanis.

The approvals follow a September 5 deadline. Any platform serving Pakistani customers on or before March 5, when the Virtual Assets Act 2026 took effect, had to file for a certificate or stop operating. Running without one is now an offense under the law.

Bringing a huge market onshore

The prize is scale. Pakistan is one of the largest grassroots crypto markets on earth — roughly 40 million accounts by official estimates, much of it bitcoin bought peer-to-peer, off any regulator’s books. Licensing is Islamabad’s attempt to route that flow through supervised venues it can see and tax.

The Act sets out eleven license categories spanning exchanges, custody, lending, derivatives, stablecoin issuance and even mining — a full framework rather than a single permit. Binance and HTX are the first through the door; more approvals are expected to follow.

Legitimacy and its price

For a country that spent years threatening bans, a licensing regime is a real turn toward acceptance. It gives users consumer protections and gives exchanges legal footing to operate and advertise. It also gives the state something it never had: a window into who is buying bitcoin and how much.

That window is the catch. Onshoring 40 million users routes them through large custodial platforms, not toward holding their own keys. It trades the privacy of peer-to-peer bitcoin for the safety and surveillance of a regulated exchange.

The escape hatch remains

Licensing the on-ramps is not the same as controlling the asset. Bitcoin bought on Binance can be withdrawn to a wallet the regulator can’t freeze, and the peer-to-peer market that built Pakistan’s 40 million accounts doesn’t vanish because two exchanges got certificates. What changes is the default path — and defaults are powerful.

Why it matters: bringing a 40-million-user bitcoin market onshore is real adoption plumbing, but it channels new buyers through custodians and gives the state a view it never had.

NOC grants to Binance and HTX and the September 5 deadline per reporting around September 5–9, 2026 and PVARA; the full list of approved firms was still forming. Informational only — not financial advice.