Pakistan Stuns Markets with Bold Bitcoin Reserve Plan—Wall Street Skeptics Already Yawning

In a move that left crypto bulls cheering and traditional finance rolling its eyes, Pakistan just dropped a geopolitical bombshell: a state-backed Bitcoin reserve. No vague ’exploratory committee’ or regulatory foot-dragging—just a straight shot at hodling national assets on-chain.

Why now? While the IMF frets over forex reserves, Islamabad’s playbook reads like a crypto maximalist’s fanfic: bypass dollar hegemony, hedge against inflation, and maybe—just maybe—flip the script on debt crises. (Cue the bond market’s collective migraine.)

One hedge fund manager sniffed, ’Next they’ll peg the rupee to memecoins.’ But with Argentina and El Salvador already stacking sats, this might be less ’desperation’ and more ’late-stage fiat reckoning.’ Game on.

Trump BTC effect?

Saqib acknowledged President Donald Trump’s impact in the space, 

“He (Trump) was able to recognize that Bitcoin is not a threat but an opportunity for innovation, freedom, and sovereignty.”

Notably, the TRUMP administration pledged to set up a strategic BTC reserve (SBR). Although the promise is yet to be kept, the U.S. move sparked interest among other nations, including Pakistan. 

However, Pakistan’s crypto interest goes beyond SBR. In March, Saqib told Bloomberg that the country was ‘done sitting on the sidelines’ on matters of crypto and financial innovation.

As a result, he said they were pushing for a legal framework to drive crypto adoption and investment. 

Shortly after, the PCC appointed Binance founder, CZ, as a strategic advisor. The country’s crypto engagements have expanded to Trump-backed World Liberty Financials (WLFI) in the recent partnership. 

In late April, the county announced the PCC-WLFI partnership, targeting crypto adoption and blockchain-related experiments on tokenization, remittances, e.t.c. According to Saqib, 

“Our collaboration with WLFI is more than just a partnership; it’s a strategic MOVE to empower our young population and integrate Pakistan into the future of global finance.”

During the BTC Conference, Saqib added that Pakistan has about 40 million crypto users, and the young talent was a great opportunity.

According to Chainalysis’ 2024 crypto adoption report, the country was among the top ten thanks to increased usage of centralized exchanges. 

That said, if the SBR is implemented, Pakistan WOULD join El Salvador, the Kingdom of Bhutan, the U.S., and China as BTC holders. 

Source: BitBo

Overall, only eight countries hold BTC, collectively worth over $57 billion, according to BitBo data.  Nation-state, alongside institutional adoption, has been projected to be a major catalyst for BTC’s upside in the long term.

At press time, BTC traded at $108K, up 14% in the past thirty days and +40% from the April low.