Pakistan to explore digital finance with World Liberty Financial

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project linked to United States President Donald Trump’s family, to “explore innovation in digital finance.”

The MOU is not a legally binding document, but rather a statement of serious intent—agreed voluntarily by equal partners. However, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the country’s recently created digital asset sector watchdog, said in a post on X that the deal signals “growing global interest in Pakistan as a key market for digital assets.”

The PVARA added that the agreement will include a particular focus on the use of stablecoins for cross-border transactions.

The MOU was signed by Pakistani Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb and World Liberty Financial Chief Executive Officer Zachary Witkoff, who is also the CEO of SC Financial Technologies.

According to a report by Daily News Egypt, the signing ceremony was also attended by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, following a meeting with a delegation from the U.S. firm led by Witkoff. The delegation met with the Prime Minister in Islamabad to discuss the development of a secure and transparent digital payment infrastructure.

Under the agreement, World Liberty Financial will reportedly work with Pakistan’s central bank to integrate its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin into a regulated digital payments system, enabling cross-border payments.

The PVARA, which was set up last May to oversee the country’s DeFi and digital asset sector, was also tasked with promoting the development of tokenization and “blockchain-based solutions at scale,” to benefit from Pakistan’s booming digital currency uptake.

Pakistan backs digital assets

Back in March 2025, the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) was established to promote the adoption of digital assets in the country and support the formulation of laws. It was the PCC that founded the PVARA to be the country’s top digital asset watchdog.

The PCC and the PVARA—both chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb—have overlapping duties, such as promoting adoption. However, the Council serves more as an advisory body that shapes policy and industry collaboration, while the PVARA has direct legal enforcement powers.

In September, the latter authority issued a call for global companies to apply for licensing in the country, inviting them to gain access to the country’s shrinking market.

In a statement issued by the PVARA at the time, the regulator requested Expressions of Interest (EoI) from established Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and digital asset exchanges seeking to enter Pakistan’s growing virtual economy.

“This EoI is our invitation to the world’s leading VASPs to partner in building a transparent and inclusive digital financial future for Pakistan,” said Bilal bin Saqib, Chairman of the PVARA and Pakistan’s Minister of State for Crypto and Blockchain.

This drive to support digital asset businesses was given further urgency when keynote speakers at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Conference revealed in November that Pakistan could soon achieve $300 billion in potential digital asset trading volume.

Thus, inspired by this spike in digital asset activity from a young, tech-savvy, and largely unbanked population, Pakistan has made digital assets a key pillar of its drive for digital transformation.

The country’s MOU with World Liberty Finance could mark the beginning of the next important chapter in this story—one that seeks to benefit from deeper ties to the equally booming U.S. digital asset sector in the Trump 2.0 era.

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