For now, please stay with us. Crypto expert Mohammad Arun has joined us. Mr. Arun, thank you very much for being with us. Mr. Arun, please tell us how important this milestone is. What benefits will people get from it?
First of all, this is a very good initiative by Pakistan. Recently, the authority issued guidelines related to an NOC. These guidelines are available on their official website and can be viewed anytime. Four areas were mentioned in them. The first is exchanges, like Binance. The second is custody services. The third is stablecoins. And the fourth relates to tokenization.
If we look at these four areas, especially exchanges, we already have platforms like Binance, Gate, Bitget, and Bybit. As you know, around 40 million Pakistani users are actively using these exchanges and earning money through them. As far as licensing is concerned, it is absolutely their right that international exchanges operating in our country should be licensed first.
The benefit of this will be that our institutions and security agencies will be able to better control concerns related to AML and counter financing. Another major issue was that many users were hesitant to even start because they were confused about whether crypto was legal or illegal. But if you look at the ground reality, Binance is currently the largest exchange operating in Pakistan. Out of those 40 million users, around 80 to 90 percent are using Binance.
So in my view, this is a very positive step by Pakistan. In the coming days, you will see more activity, and more work will take place on exchanges like Binance and HDX.
Alright, Arun sahib. There were some issues before. For example, when people wanted to convert dollars through their bank accounts, even after the conversion rate, there were difficulties. Will these issues reduce now? And secondly, will spot and futures trading be possible?
Yes, spot and futures trading were already ongoing. The problem was that banks were not involved at all. They had not received any official letter. Because of this, many people were using P2P transactions. For example, if you wanted to buy USDT and I wanted to sell it, I would list 1,000 USDT on Binance. You would place an order to purchase it, then we would move to the chat section, where I would share my bank account details and you would transfer the money there.
The problem was that this system led to a lot of scams. Buyers and sellers started filing complaints and initiating chargebacks, which resulted in many bank accounts being blocked. Entire chains of two or three accounts would get flagged, which was very troubling.
Now, after the issuance of the NOC, the benefit will be that many banks will come forward. Just like JazzCash recently signed agreements in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, many banks will introduce their accounts on Binance. This means users will no longer need to rely on P2P. They will be able to directly use their bank accounts to buy USDT, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies from Binance.
The biggest advantage of this will be that the long standing issues and complications will finally come to an end. At the same time, our security institutions will also feel more comfortable and confident with $BTC the system.
