IMF Demands Answers from Pakistan After Alleged 2,000MW Bitcoin Mining Power Grab

Pakistan’s energy crisis? Not for crypto miners—apparently. The International Monetary Fund just slammed Islamabad with urgent questions about where 2,000 megawatts of electricity vanished. Coincidentally, that’s enough juice to power a small country... or a very profitable Bitcoin operation.

While citizens sweat through blackouts, someone’s been diverting grid capacity at industrial scale. The IMF isn’t buying the ’technical losses’ excuse—not when global hash rates mysteriously spike from the region.

Another case of developing nations mortgaging their infrastructure on crypto’s volatile bet. At least when Wall Street does it, they use other people’s money.

Pakistan is taking rapid strides to embrace crypto

Over the past few months, Pakistan has rapidly changed its stance on cryptocurrencies, announcing several plans and initiatives to adopt crypto assets and regulate them.

In March, the country established the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) to regulate crypto assets, boost their adoption, and integrate them into Pakistan’s financial landscape. In early April, Pakistan appointed former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) as strategic advisor to the council.

Late last month, World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project with close ties to President Donald TRUMP and his sons, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PCC.

On May 21, following the recommendation of the PCC, the government established the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA)—an event attended by U.S. Vice President JD Vance as well as Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

The PDAA WOULD serve as a regulatory watchdog responsible for overseeing the licensing of digital asset service providers, ensuring compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) regulations, and promoting innovation.

At the Bitcoin 2025 conference on Thursday, Bilal bin Saqib, crypto adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, unveiled the country’s first strategic Bitcoin reserve, drawing the IMF’s scrutiny. Saqib, who also announced the launch of a national Bitcoin wallet, noted:

“Our youth are online and on-chain. Pakistan, with over 40 million crypto wallets and an average age of 23 years, is now being recognised for its future rather than its past.”