A Nation on Life Support Dives into Digital Assets

For a country that seems to perpetually hover on the brink of economic collapse, Pakistan’s sudden enthusiasm for cryptocurrency in 2025 raises more than a few eyebrows. Long reliant on International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts and heavily indebted to China—a nation that has banned cryptocurrencies outright—Islamabad’s pivot to digital currencies feels less like innovation and more like a high-stakes gamble. With inflation surging, foreign reserves shrinking, and a widening trade deficit, Pakistan recently secured a crucial $1 billion tranche from the IMF. Among the Fund’s conditions: bring the informal economy under the tax net and regulate the burgeoning world of crypto assets.

While officials in Islamabad presented the move as a leap toward fintech innovation, financial inclusion, and boosting remittance flows, the geopolitical undercurrents told a far more complex story.

FATF Oversight and the Terror Financing Question

Pakistan has long walked a diplomatic tightrope when it comes to global financial scrutiny. Although the country narrowly avoided Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisting in the past, India and Western nations have consistently raised concerns about its lax financial oversight—particularly regarding terror financing. In this context, the adoption of crypto—a notoriously opaque and decentralized financial instrument—sparked immediate alarm among analysts. Critics warned that such a move could pave the way for bypassing international sanctions and monitoring, offering militant groups a backdoor to launder money or reroute funds under the radar.

A Shadowy Deal and a Military Man in the Room

Then came the real geopolitical shocker. In late April 2025, Pakistan’s newly established Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) signed a landmark agreement with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a U.S.-based crypto firm reportedly 60% owned by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner. The deal might have passed as a routine fintech partnership—until Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir, made a surprise appearance to personally finalize the agreement.

Such direct military involvement in a business deal was unprecedented and raised serious questions. Was this just a blockchain venture, or was there a deeper, more strategic play? For a cash-strapped country under heavy scrutiny, aligning with Trump-linked interests may have been an attempt to curry favor in Washington and reduce diplomatic pressure.

A Timeline That Raises Eyebrows

Barely days after the WLF deal, militants carried out a brutal attack on the Indian town of Pahalgam, killing 26 tourists on April 29. The tragedy reignited hostilities between India and Pakistan. But just as tensions began to spike, Donald Trump took to his social platform, Truth Social, to claim credit for brokering peace between the two nations. He commended the leaders of India and Pakistan, floated trade incentives, and even offered to mediate the Kashmir dispute—calling it a “1,000-year-old conflict.”

The timing was difficult to ignore: a commercial crypto deal involving Trump’s family and Pakistan’s military, followed almost immediately by Trump’s sudden diplomatic intervention. The optics were, at best, suspicious.

The “Bitcoin Shakers” Blueprint

While Pakistan has insisted that its crypto push aligns with FATF guidelines, experts point to a troubling precedent: the fundraising model used by Hamas. Known as the “Bitcoin shakers,” this strategy leverages decentralized platforms, privacy coins, and mixing services to obscure financial transactions and evade scrutiny. Groups like the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades have used these methods to fund operations while avoiding detection by global authorities.

Despite aggressive efforts by Israel and the U.S. to seize crypto wallets and disrupt these networks, such tactics have only grown more sophisticated. For Pakistan—a country with deep experience in informal hawala networks and shadow banking—crypto presents a modern, untraceable evolution of existing financial loopholes.

Strategic Pivot or Dangerous Play?

Pakistan’s cryptocurrency ambitions appear to serve several overlapping objectives:

• Economic Diversification: Drawing in foreign capital, especially from politically connected Trump-linked ventures, at a time when other doors are closing.
• Financial Resilience: Building parallel financial channels that operate outside traditional systems dominated by Western oversight.
• Diplomatic Maneuvering: Establishing relationships with U.S. power brokers as a hedge against international isolation.
• Covert Capabilities: Facilitating secretive financial flows for activities that would otherwise trigger red flags in global systems.

For Donald Trump, whose business and political interests have often merged, the Pakistan crypto deal fits into a long-established pattern. While neither he nor his family have commented on the specifics, the intertwining of private business, military cooperation, and public diplomacy raises serious ethical and security concerns.

With the IMF watching closely, FATF on alert, and India increasingly suspicious, Pakistan’s crypto embrace is anything but straightforward. It’s a calculated move—one that may redefine the rules of geopolitical finance, but also carries the risk of backfiring spectacularly.