Islamabad — Asia Web3 Alliance Japan (AWAJ) president Hinza Asif has called for a unified crypto industry body in Pakistan to speak for digital-asset stakeholders and coordinate with overseas exchanges after a recent multibillion-dollar cybersecurity breach involving Binance.
In a statement, she argued that Pakistan’s growing market still lacks verified investor data and an organised channel to represent businesses and users when major cybersecurity or financial incidents hit international platforms. Without that structure, she said, it is unclear who would pursue complaints or engage exchanges on behalf of Pakistani holders.
Why the proposal now
Asif linked her appeal to the Binance-related breach, warning that failures at large exchanges can bring financial losses, unauthorised transactions and blocked withdrawals, and can weaken trust. She stressed that any specific impact on Pakistani investors from that incident remains unclear and must be checked independently.
“The question is who will represent and protect Pakistani investors if an international exchange faces a major cybersecurity or financial crisis,” she said. Pakistan, in her view, still has no settled way to gather investor complaints and deal with foreign platforms when such crises arise.
Market scale claims and what is unverified
Asif pointed to Pakistan’s third-place ranking in the 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by Chainalysis. She also referred to estimates of around 40 million crypto-linked accounts and digital-asset exposure of between $10 billion and $20 billion.
Those numbers, she noted, have not been officially confirmed as a count of individual investors. For readers, that means the figures signal possible scale, not a verified census of who holds what, or how exposed any one household is.
How an industry body would sit beside PVARA
Asif welcomed government regulatory work through the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the state body set up to oversee virtual assets within its legal mandate. She said a regulator and an independent industry association would play complementary roles: PVARA would handle formal oversight, while a representative body could give fintech firms, blockchain businesses, technology professionals and investors a shared platform to raise concerns with policymakers.
She also urged a national digital finance platform backed by reliable market research, coordinated grievance handling, cybersecurity awareness and formal partnerships with international industry counterparts — so Pakistan crypto regulation and industry coordination would move together rather than in isolation.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Pakistan mein crypto industry ke liye ek unified representative body ki tajweez ki gayi hai. AWAJ ki president Hinza Asif ka kehna hai ke Bari exchange pe cybersecurity masla ho to Pakistani investors ki awaz kaun uthaye. Unhon ne PVARA ke saath industry association ko complementary bataya hai. Jo log crypto rakhte hain, unke liye asl sawal yeh hai ke shikayat aur protection ka clear system kab banta hai.
