Connect with us
DAPA Banner

Crypto World

Pakistan’s Bilal Bin Saqib says crypto is a necessity, not a luxury

Published

on

Pakistan’s Bilal Bin Saqib says crypto is a necessity, not a luxury

Pakistan didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that it loves crypto, said the chairman of the country’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA).

The country was in the unusual position of having one of the largest crypto markets on the planet, but no guardrails at all, PVARA chairman Bilal Bin Saqib told Consensus Hong Kong 2026 on Thursday.

“In 2025, Pakistan did realize that we have approximately 40 million of its citizens who are already trading digital assets with zero rules, zero protection, and zero benefit flowing back to the state,” Bin Saqib said via virtual link. “The market existed, but the regulations didn’t. So essentially, we tried to move from a gray market into a governed market.”

In fact, Pakistan boasts the third largest crypto market by retail activity, ahead of places like Germany and Japan, Bin Saqib said. This is because Pakistan isn’t just an emerging economy, it’s also a young country in terms of demographics. Some 70% of the 250 million population are under the age of 30.

Advertisement

“We are one of the most tech savvy youth populations on the planet,” the PVARA chairman said. “We have over 100 million unbanked citizens, people who have no saving tools, no investment tools, no way to break out of their economic class. And hence why crypto and blockchain are not a luxury for Pakistan. It’s a ladder for the masses.”

Pakistan’s bitcoin strategic reserve and national mining plans

One area of interest for the crypto industry was Bin Saqib’s announcement last year at Bitcoin Las Vegas that Pakistan was planning to establish a strategic bitcoin BTC $68,087.00 reserve and support bitcoin mining.

Bin Saqib pointed out it wasn’t just “an announcement,” but added that “when you are dealing with something as strategic as the Bitcoin reserve or the national energy allocation, speed without structure can be dangerous.”

As for the reserve, “the first step is we’ve identified the digital assets that are held by the state, moving them into a formal state controlled custody framework, and that establishes transparency, accountability and the standards. It’s not about speculation; it’s about treating digital assets as sovereign wealth,” Bin Saqib said.

Advertisement

On the mining side, he said: “We’ve identified the sites where we have surplus electricity, and now we are assessing the economics and the impacts, and at the same time, we are also engaging with global miners and also AI compute operators.”

The project is about following a “responsible partnership model,” Bin Saqib said, because this is not just a stand alone crypto experiment.

“It’s part of a broader strategy around energy optimization, compute capacity and our national digital infrastructure. Because Bitcoin mining and AI data centers are the two mechanisms for converting unused energy into productive capacity for our country.”

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Crypto World

Square launches zero-fee Bitcoin payments for US merchants through 2026: Square

Published

on

Square launches zero-fee Bitcoin payments for US merchants through 2026: Square


Square is waiving processing fees for Bitcoin payments at US merchants for two years, with instant dollar conversion to reduce adoption barriers.

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

$80M Hyperliquid Whale Bet Predicts Bitcoin Crash and Oil Rally

Published

on

$80M Hyperliquid Whale Bet Predicts Bitcoin Crash and Oil Rally

Key takeaways:

  • A Hyperliquid whale placed an $80 million bet against Bitcoin and the S&P 500 while going long on Brent crude oil prices.

  • The whale’s history of massive losses and inconsistent signals suggests the trade could fall on the wrong side of the market.

Bitcoin (BTC) showed strength on Wednesday, bouncing back from Tuesday’s $66,000 low after President Donald Trump teased a potential ceasefire in the US and Israel-Iran war. Even with Bitcoin trading above $68,000, one whale used Hyperliquid DEX to place an $80 million bet on a market collapse. 

Traders are now watching closely to see if this whale’s massive position signals a looming Bitcoin price drop.

Hyperliquid whale 0x94d373…c933814 position. Source: CoinGlass

The Hyperliquid whale, linked to address 0x94d373…c933814, carefully built this nearly $80 million leveraged position between Tuesday and Wednesday. The trade includes a $40 million short (sell) on Bitcoin futures near $68,760, a $2 million short on synthetic S&P 500 Index contracts, and a $37 million long (buy) in synthetic Brent oil contracts.

Crude Brent oil (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView

The whale’s aggregate position leverage stood at 7 times, indicating high conviction. The Bitcoin futures liquidation price was $80,083, while the Brent oil position would be forcefully terminated above $93. The timing of the trade is curious as S&P 500 Index futures gained 4% between Tuesday and Wednesday as traders anticipate the US and Israel-Iran war dissipating over the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, President Trump said “Iran’s New Regime President” is considering a “ceasefire,” although the conditions to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz remain unknown. Iran demands reparations and sovereignty. Thus, one could assume that the Hyperliquid whale is counter-trading the market’s optimistic take, betting that Brent crude oil prices will jump while Bitcoin loses its value.

Advertisement

This Hyperliquid whale previously lost $40 million

This address belongs to a particularly unlucky whale, or at least one who has been extremely unsuccessful since late January. The Hyperliquid whale apparently uses bots for execution, given the sheer number of small trades that build into huge positions, but it still managed to lose $37 million in its first month of activity in December 2025.

The same user was flagged by X user ‘lookonchain’ on Feb. 5 after taking a massive loss on leveraged bullish bets on Ether (ETH), Bitcoin, Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP). 

Source: X/lookonchain

According to the analysis, the whale had previously made $25 million in profits from shorts in multiple cryptocurrencies, but decided to flip the position on Feb. 4, resulting in a $40 million loss. There is no way to know exactly what triggered this entity to place those bets, but the event proves that even whales can misinterpret the market.

Related: Warren Buffett bought $17B in US T-bills: A bad omen for Bitcoin price?

The erratic signals from President Trump regarding a potential full-on invasion and the war in Iran leave room for opposing views. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied there were talks for a ceasefire but confirmed to Al Jazeera on Tuesday that there was an intention to end the war, according to CNBC.

Advertisement

Given the history of this whale’s market positioning and its track record of losing trades, it’s possible that the current $80 million bet may fall on the wrong side of the market.