Pakistan moved from a de facto banking freeze to a statutory licensing regime in 2026, and both layers are still visible at once. The Virtual Assets Act, 2026 — promulgated in March 2026, replacing the Virtual Assets Ordinance of July 2025 — established the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) as an independent federal regulator that licenses, supervises and regulates virtual assets and virtual asset service providers.
Holding and trading crypto is therefore lawful in principle and the state now has a framework for it; what is not yet true is that anyone is licensed under it. PVARA's own licensing page frames the requirements as applying "when full licensing becomes available" and gives firms that were operating on or before 5 March 2026 until 5 September 2026 to file a No Objection Certificate application or stop.
The contract itself does not change by geography: a XMR perpetual settles in USDC everywhere.
11 venues open Monero perps to traders in Pakistan.
Aster
Avantis
Ethereal
gTrade
Helix
Hyperliquid
Lighter
Pacifica
Paradex
SynthetixFour steps from sign-up to an open position.
15% flat Capital Gains Tax on cryptocurrency profits under Pakistan's Virtual Assets Ordinance 2025.
Trading Monero from Pakistan: regulated.
Regulator for Monero trading in Pakistan: Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the independent federal regulator for virtual assets established under the Virtual Assets Act, 2026; the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) remains the banking and payments regulator.
Full identity verification is the statutory norm for any licensed provider.
Pakistan residents can trade Monero on 17 platforms, including Aevo, Aster and Avantis.