Bitcoin Forum

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Image Source (https://cointelegraph.com/news/pakistani-finance-minister-says-crypto-will-never-be-legal-because-of-fatf)

Crypto currency has been around for a long time in Pakistan and a lot of people have invested in Bitcoin and Crypto currency since then millions are trading in Bitcoin, but now the government has started creating difficulties for crypto traders and there has been a debate in the senate that crypto currencies should be banned and a committee has been formed to ban crypto currencies. Therefore, the bill will be prepared and presented in the Senate. The Central Bank Director has also issued a statement.

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After this news, many traders are selling their crypto currency and Bitcoin and withdrawing their money from the exchange by converting their money to stable currency, and in the current situation, traders are selling crypto currencies and bit coins at a loss. this is because everyone is afraid of what will happen to their assets if the government bans access to the exchanges.

I myself have decided that I will not sell my Bitcoin but I have transferred my Bitcoin to my hard wallet where I believe my Bitcoin are safe, because I think that Bitcoin is a great choice for investment, here my capital is safer and more profitable than in a bank.Despite the ban, I will hold Bitcoin because Bitcoin is the best investment.

This is the kind of panic the government creates ones they see that people have found out about the importance of bitcoin and they are taking advantage of it and this is usually at the cost of reduce usage of the country’s legal tender. I don’t know but just maybe they would have found out that it has affected their local banks and they want to just restrict it.


This the major problem with many people without proper bitcoin knowledge. They fall for every FUD created by government and rush into panic sales of their funds. No amount of government banning of cryptocurrency can make you lose your crypto funds store on self custodian wallets. The only fear is those on exchanges that are probably regulated by the government or generally on centralized exchanges.
Using the hardware wallet for the storage is the best but if the amount to store isn’t that much, you can simply use a self custodian wallet like electrum that offers both cold and hot wallet storage

Pressured by FATF. The government complies as the country needs aide.
Pakistan is their own country, no one else can decide for it but their officials and if they say crypto is banned, then it is. Eventually they come to realized they can't actually do it due to BTC's nature.

Its not about population, 240 is small compare to Billions on earth. BTC will survive without Pakistan.

If you’re in BTC to set free from today’s very very dirty fiat, you’re probably going to want to move out of a country who tries to block what sets you free. China has banned Bitcoin before and it now became such a normal and often heard of thing that nobody even seems to care anymore. This may slow down Bitcoin’s progress a very little bit but nothing else. It’ll just recover quickly and everyone will forget just as fast.

At present, implementing a ban may not be a favorable course of action in your jurisdiction due to the significant number of individuals already involved in cryptocurrency. However, it is possible that certain wallet software or exchanges may be prohibited. Nevertheless, due to the inherent nature of decentralization, no government would ultimately succeed in completely banning the usage of cryptocurrencies. In the event of a ban, people would resort to trading on the black market. A similar situation exists in my own country, where Bitcoin is not officially permitted, yet I and many others continue to use it. We engage in local fiat-to-crypto and peer-to-peer transactions. The government's attempts to impede us have proven ineffective.

Don't forget China with a population of 1.5 billion people also banned the crypto currencies but we all know it can't stop the growth of Bitcoin in long term. So I don't think the current price fall is not even happening due to the statement from Pakistan it's mainly happening due to the high network fee for the past few weeks.

Bitcoin is going to be there even if every government says it's illegal and do you know how is it possible? Because it's decentralised and doesn't need permissions from government to exist.

The population of a country has nothing to do with government actions against it. I'm from Nigeria, the most populous African nation and the government banned the banks from getting involved in Bitcoin some 2 years ago.
Non progressive governments would always find a way to stiffle new innovation if they cannot effectively control it.

Not everyone has the liberty to simply move to another country, some have to find a workaround the bans.

The country might decide to accept Bitcoin legally after they see the positive side of it in the future and for many that own the coin in the country, they can keep holding with a positive mindset that there will be a change with the decision soonest.

They're in fact looking like complete fools by obeying FATF, which has no power over any country. It actually has no power at all. It's up to you whether you want to listen to them or not and they know it. That's why all they do is post "recommendations" but cannot make countries play by their rules.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a joke. A puppet on a string. If an elected government of a country bows before such an organization, it only shows how deep in debt the country has to be if it's afraid of being put on some list.

You can't ban bitcoin, that's a fact and many countries have learned it the hard way. Time for Pakistan, I guess.

not a wise decision by government. they are not seeing that majority of countries are not even banning crypto. the launch of their CBDC  is still on 2025, thats very far yet for the reason to ban crypto. they are not considering the people trading where theres $20B worth of volume last 2021.

the country however had been lobbying to be removed from the greylist since investors are moving away from countries on this list. banning crypto must be one of the condition for them to be removed on the list which after this pakistan will have access to global funding. their fate lies to this decision.

Whenever you come across news about a government-imposed ban on cryptocurrency, it is advisable to investigate the scale of the campaign and the likelihood of subsequent regulation before making any hasty decisions to sell your portfolio.

You're doing the right thing of keeping it to a hardware wallet because you'll never know what will happen in the future and there have been news about stealing of funds through known software and multicurrency wallets like in Atomic. The government of Pakistan or any government that don't see the good thing about Bitcoin and cryptos really aren't gonna be convinced by anyone who would speak good about it to them.
There's some force that's trying to make them decide that it shouldn't be adopted no matter what. But just as those countries before that have implemented a ban on Bitcoin, later on that will change for sure.

The population has nothing to do with banning bitcoin. Any government can bitcoin at any time but the question is can they stop their citizens from using bitcoin or holding bitcoin. The answers is No. No government can stop bitcoin and that is where bitcoin has advantages over other currencies.

Is there a sentiment among Asian nations toward bitcoin that leads them to accept it as a illegal form of payment there? I don't understand why some Asian nations do not fully welcome bitcoin. They prefer to initially discredit bitcoin for their citizens before eventually making it legal tender. Asian nations including China, Japan, and India did that before.

The Pakistani government, in my opinion, won't be an exception to that. I think that eventually, they'll want to legalize bitcoin and change their minds about their initial position. It is just a matter of time.

The government of a nation cannot block the growth of bitcoin (it is unstoppable), even if more than 240 million people are living there. What happened when the Chinese government took those actions a year ago? After learning about the economic impact bitcoin does have, they later encourage their population to start using it.

So many countries has brought such kind of news of banning or restricting citizens not to operate or invest with bit more in their country, using Nigeria as illustrations or primary examples, bitcoiners should not be in panick to sell their coins because it will bring a lot of lose, in nigeria the government announced bitcoin to be ban and later they re- announced that they only restricted bitcoin but that could make Nigerians not to buy bitcoin or neither sell their bitcoin,  the only thing is that they can't purchase bitcoin with their ATM card through bank, but p2p is been used to sell bitcoins and also buy bitcoin, so no one should be on panick to sell their coins at lesser price due to you want to recover your capital, they most be a means of surviving with bitcoin over there.

Something I asked myself as well,
What is the relationship between population size and bitcoin?
I don't seem to make that mark as I feel, its got nothing to do with it other than, increased or reduced demand could result in some adjustments to the market structure as per price and trends.

It's not uncommon for governments to make this sort of threats and the crypto enthusiast in Pakistan ought to have known better by now or at least, learn from the history of the bans from other nations. Only weak hands would rush to empty there portfolio at this time and it tells how little they've come to know of the currency.

The government have a commodity and tool to control of there own in fiat. Its very hard for them to accept the idea of a free financial system in bitcoin and so they throw what they can at it and see how the people react. What I think? You guys ought to be indifferent.

Even if the governments ban crypto, the citizens will always have the free will to use it or not. While it may be difficult to use crypto in a country where it is banned, it does not close the doors on other countries that are still open for business on the crypto side of things. Also, I’m pretty sure that the established ones in the crypto industry in Pakistan will still be happy to cater to traders that are looking to do business with them in crypto, albeit the bans and tight restrictions. It’s the classic doom and gloom tactic, but if the citizens are wise, they wouldn’t be scared about the possible bans at all.

I do always disagree when a country tries to ban crypto I would still agree if a country try to regulate them or do a tax on cryptocurrency. Because when you banned the crypto, it just like kill the switch but if you like to do a tax on crypto it has benefits between the government and the crypto user.

I mean right now maybe there is million of the user that have crypto in Pakistan. and the best right now is move all the crypto to hardware wallet like you do and when trade or withdraw using P2P merchant and global exchange

First, I'm not sure how strict Pakistan is in implementing certain rules, but I surmise they won't be too harsh on Bitcoin even if it is made illegal in the country. Bitcoin isn't a crime, after all.

Second, Bitcoin secretly thrived in China, Bangladesh, in some parts of the Middle East, and in other countries where it is not legally recognized. So I don't think this will be a big deal to Pakistani Bitcoin supporters. I guess they just have to avoid certain centralized platforms where Pakistan is on the blacklist and they're probably good.

Bitcoin have lot of enemy in this world and they are trying different ways to create fud. Government say that they are banning crypto because IMF ask for this but this is not correct. actually in case if Bitcoin, government will not be able to collect tax and high volume of fund will be entered in Crypto instead of Banks so how these banks can stay calm. banks and crypto has inverse proportion but at the end Crypto will win.

This is what people called him panic selling. no doubt Cex are not safe and any time exchange can freeze Withdraw but we can store our coins in hot wallet and no one can check our privacy. The same case is also with Sec fud and after this news we saw a sudden dump in btc. everything will become normal and instead of panic we should go for our fund safety


Yes this is good decision. i am also doing the same. I am using Binance for trading and i trust that it will not freeze our account without notice for Withdraw. There are some Cex which need no KYC like mexc and Kucoin for trading.

Bitcoin will be wherever it needs to be, including Pakistan to make "markets" more efficient, to fill "gaps" both seen and unseen, and simply to generate more utility for itself.

Like the ransomware "market" for instance. It was only made possible through Bitcoin because it's both censorship-resistant and permissionless. It forced software vendors to update/patch their apps in a more regular basis to keep ransomware hackers away, or else the hackers take some money. That's an unseen gap solved by Bitcoin.

The government are all feeling the heat, they are seeing how people are depositing less amount of money to their bank accounts and investing in crypto, they oy thing they can really do is create panic and fear in the mind of investors.

But its already too late, if what's happening right now happened back in 2015 or 2016, it would have a very bad impact on crypto but now people have built confidence over time, and they see the new threat as new opportunities.

There is no need to believe in any FUD, the worst have already happened and let's hope that Binance and Coinbase win this case in court then the whole crypto movement will get even more bullish than ever.

I don't get why the total population of the country is used in the title cause even if there are 240 millions of people in your country, it doesn't mean that all of them are using Bitcoin. I'm also not sure about the percentage of Bitcoin users in Pakistan but according to what I've searched for, there's 4.1% of the total population who owns cryptocurrency. Banning of cryptocurrency in your country might bring an impact but I think it won't be that big of an issue since there's still more percentage of people who have no issue with their government regarding crypto. Though, this is bad news especially to those who own crypto in your country. But I've seen users here who are still active even if it's illegal in their country so it depends on the person whether they'll keep their Bitcoin or not.

World Bank uses FATF to influence the financial decisions of many countries. If you want to get loans and other financial aid from them, then you have to abide by their terms and conditions. One of the main terms for loans is to ban cryptocurrencies. The same thing happened in El Salvador, Central African Republic and others but El Salvador was brave enough to resist this influence. If Bitcoin was able to survive China's attacks, Pakistan's crackdown will have little or no effect.

There is an assumption that the size of the population will determine the level of Bitcoin use. More people might lead to more demand. This assumption might be partially true but other factors besides population determine bitcoin use. Factors such as the income, education, and technological exposure of the population. The availability of certain facilities such as power, internet, and others play important role in bitcoin adoption.

Any government, if it so desires, will ban cryptocurrencies from the country, regardless of the population. Be it 250, 500 or 1000 million. The population size for them will play the last role.

What can I say, then Pakistan will ban crypto, judging by the bill being prepared and the statements of the Director of the Central Bank. Another country will be among the opponents of cryptocurrencies and will begin to lag behind those countries that will be loyal to it.

About the panic of traders. This is yet another example of how panic creates a selling frenzy, which leads to losses, although it is not yet known exactly how this will all be regulated.

It would be interesting to know why these traders didn't want to just withdraw assets to their wallets, as you did. They could have kept them until better times or waited to move to other countries loyal to crypto. No matter how governments regulate the currency industry, they will never be able to get to every personal wallet.

If you want to discuss about population, what about China which have 1.45 Billions of people? they're completely ban Bitcoin since few years ago.

Pakistan is one of poor country, so even Bitcoin is banned in Pakistan, I don't think it will cause a huge impact because the citizens aren't afford to buy Bitcoin. China is a developed country, this surely will reduce Bitcoin adoption.

It doesn't mean I want Pakistan ban Bitcoin, but Pakistan just don't give a huge impact in Bitcoin adoption.

Not surprised if there are many underground dealings here in my area even if Bitcoin isn't banned in here. Nobody can just stop something that's not being administered by anyone. Government around the world could still go and find Satoshi, but we've been at that for almost decades and people have been creating BS conspiracy theories about their identity.

On the event of my own country banning Bitcoin, there would be plenty of users using VPNs since it's highly likely that the crypto exchanges would be blocked already. There's just always that hole that people can do to bypass these restrictions.

Undergound dealing like the terms and condition of FAFT for Pakistan inorder for the country to be scratched out of the graylist is to ban crypto. Its said in the article the reason Pakistan was in the list was because of terrorism funding. FAFT probably suspect the country supporting terrorism too and one condition it to ban crypto for theres a growing use of it.

will surely come to almost all bitcoin investors in your country. Moreover, those who make these regulations are the governments of the countries where they live, it is certain that investors will prefer the way to sell them. But it's a different story if you sell bitcoin when the market is down and results in a loss. Because even though the regulations prohibiting cryptocurrencies have been issued in the country where you live (Pakistan), selling it at a loss is an inappropriate action. Because even though the prohibition regulations have been issued, you don't need to be too afraid that the assets you own won't be able to be sent to the stock exchange or won't be able to sell them. Because there are definitely many ways that can be done, if the government really bans crypto.
Your decision is indeed very right, by storing it in the hardware wallet that you have, it is certain that your bitcoin assets will be fine, and very safe. So don't panic too much with the regulations that came out, to the point that you have to sell all the bitcoin assets that you have.

I also find it a bit absurd to suggest that there is a connection between population and the banning or acceptance of bitcoin. But I also disagree with you saying that poor countries can't afford bitcoins. You should remember, no one forces you to buy 1 full bitcoin, you can buy as much as you want, depending on your financial ability. Bitcoin is for everyone, including the poorest, it's not discriminatory or just for one person.

It's unfair for a population of 240 million to have Bitcoin banned, just because a minority who rules the country wants it to be banned. But that is how the system we are inserted works in every corners of the world. Thankfully crypto adopters have resources like VPN, which can allow them to continue accessing crypto platforms even if their local rulers impose restrictions to it. It's not the end of the world for traders, investors and freelancers in Pakistan to face such ban. They can learn from the example of citizens from other countries where Bitcoin is also banned or frowned up, like China and Russia.

I don't think cryptos should be banned anywhere, only perhaps temporarily restricted somewhere if severe circumstances call for it. Generally, governments ban cryptos out of fear, I believe. It's because of feeling like now there's a competition to fiat, to banks, and also a lot of freedom that people are getting this way. But our world sort of came to the idea of free competition as a productive environment, and restricting competition like that is just unfair. Cryptos can coexist with fiat currencies, and fiat is still likely to have way more admirers. Banning them (especially if we're talking about Bitcoin) is tough and uncalled-for.

The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies makes it difficult for any government to completely ban their use. People often find alternative means to continue participating in the cryptocurrency market, such as participating in peer-to-peer transactions or using decentralized exchanges. While bans can be implemented, you can still explore different options for adapting and continuing to use cryptocurrencies. The resilience and adaptability of crypto users have been evident in various jurisdictions where restrictions or bans have been implemented. So the bans implemented by the government are really ineffective in preventing people from using cryptocurrencies.

A ban would only increase the price of Bitcoin as it has been reconfigured to respond properly to such news. It's unstoppable system/currency with solid principles that's built to withstand whatever that's thrown at it. It would've reacted negatively to such news in the past as it was controlled mostly by forces that didn't care much about its solid principles... And they tethered it to weak fundamentals that were contrary to the principles which caused it to react negatively when the fundamentals are negatively affected. This issue is pretty much solved now. It's reconfigured to understand it true purpose and react positively at news or event that will encourage people to use it according to the purpose.
A ban in any country would force citizens who use Bitcoin wrongly or in centralized manner to self-custody their bitcoins and use them in decentralized p2p manner where the users will further enyoy other benefits that's according to its principles.

This is bad news for Pakistani crypto investors, and this news will create serious worries in the minds of some investors in Pakistan. But all I believe is that even though cryptocurrency is banned in Pakistan, that will never make some Bitcoin investors sell off their Bitcoin. I don't really know why some governments are enemies of Bitcoin, is it because they don't have power over it? If not, why will some governments ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in their countries? If the government checks, well, cryptocurrency has been a great help to many countries, especially all these undeveloped countries with a high rate of unemployment. Since the existence of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, this has been a great opportunity for many people because it is where some people are feeding themselves, especially those that have no job and take advantage of the crypto trading as opportunity.

That is the best decision you can make rather than selling off the coins when your government decides to stifle the growth of cryptocurrency market. Even the Indian government implemented a 30% tax with additional 4% cess and 1% TDS tax whenever you sell any cryptocurrency assets. If a country implements these strict regulation major players will move to safer markets.

It's literally impossible to effectively ban bitcoin, so they government is wasting time trying to pass a law that won't have any impact, just like Chinese ban of crypto. It's proven that a lot of trading volume comes from China anyway and some mining is still being done there. I'm against any kind of restriction and especially restriction aimed at our private choices. I'm fine with the government telling me that I can't take a dump in the middle of a street or race cars on public roads endangering other drivers. I'm against the government telling me what I can buy, eat, drink, smoke, and so on. It's not their job to check what I have in the fridge, what movies I watch and if I own or mine cryptocurrencies.

I think there should be a selective ban in cryptocurrency if the government wanted to put restrictions.  Aside from Bitcoin, the government should ban any other cryptocurrencies because most of them are proven to be either a scam or money grabs.

Bitcoin had proven it worth and its market.  Bitcoin had already established its market and has the liquidity to back its value.  Even though it is highly volatile, the community and the foundation are getting stronger each day.


The government can ban Bitcoin and can easily shut down centralized exchanges or ban their site by telling ISP to ban them.  Chinese ban of crypto have an effect on the market.  If chinese government is crypto-friendly, we could have seen a better price than the price today.

Does the number of population matters in cryptocurrency?

Banning crypto in their country is their governments decision it really doesn't matter how many population do they have, just think about it everyone could know or earn in crypto with their internet so why does the number of population matters?
And besides even if they ban cryptocurrency how would they know if someone is earning or using it inside their area? there are so many ways to access it if you want to.

The entire population of Pakistan isn't using cryptocurrency. The users and holders of bitcoin users in Pakistan constitute about 4% which is something around 10 million. Considering the 10 million users in mind the country doesn't make any big ban. Even if a ban is made, this doesn't affect the market or the users in any way, because there'll be loopholes available to make use of it.

Somehow this will create some panic among the holders, however the funds in our control gives peace of mind. Similar scenario have been experienced by people residing in different countries. We need to be just moving with them, everything will get back.

Pakistan average monthly salary is $210 [1] and monthly cost of a single person in Pakistan is $287 [2] which mean if you're just an average people in Pakistan, you're not enough to pay your monthly needs, how you can have a money to start invest in Bitcoin?

The Bitcoin fee is already hurt you, poor people can buy Bitcoin, but buying Bitcoin with small amount money has no benefit. Bitcoin is for everyone, but it doesn't make sense if your financial aren't stable, you want to buy Bitcoin.

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[1] https://bdeex.com/pakistan/
[2] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Pakistan

A lot of countries are moving to more strict regulations on Crypto currencies, because the financial industry like Banks are putting pressure on them to do it. Just look at the SEC in the US and how they are targeting Binance with several charges, trying to close them down.

Governments use tax money to bail out Banks and now they are using tax payers money to fight the Banks competition. This is in their best interest, because Banks provide control over people's wealth and information for tax purposes.  ::) ::)