LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The government of Pakistan plans to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve and support bitcoin mining, announced the country’s Minister of State for Blockchain and Crypto Bilal Bin Saqib at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Bin Saqib mentioned that Pakistan’s initiative for a strategic bitcoin reserve was inspired by the U.S. administration’s emerging plan for a similar reserve, which will initially be filled with the U.S. government’s holdings from criminal and civil forfeitures, estimated at around 200,000 bitcoins. He also stated that the Pakistani government is monitoring the U.S.’s focus on stablecoin legislation, particularly the GENIUS Act, “very carefully.”
Similar to the bitcoins designated for the U.S. strategic reserve, Bin Saqib asserted that the Pakistani government would not sell its bitcoins.
“This wallet, the national bitcoin wallet, is not for speculation or hype. We will be holding these bitcoins and we will never, ever sell them,” Bin Saqib stated.
As part of establishing a strategic reserve, Bin Saqib announced that the Pakistani government has allocated 2,000 megawatts of electricity for bitcoin mining and AI data centers. “We want to welcome all miners to come to Pakistan, all the infrastructure players to come to Pakistan and build with us,” he said.
Bin Saqib conveyed that forming a bitcoin strategic reserve in Pakistan would be “just the beginning” of the country’s involvement in the crypto industry.
“We have over 100 million unbanked people. They lack tools for saving and investing, and we want to change that. We want them to break their economic classes. And I truly believe that crypto and blockchain can facilitate that significant leap,” Bin Saqib explained. “We want to tokenize our illiquid assets. We want to implement digital IDs … So Pakistan is seeking allies. Pakistan is striving for access, because Pakistan aims to develop.”
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