At an ornate constructing within the coronary heart of Islamabad, Pakistan’s strongest leaders gathered in January to welcome a particular customer: Zachary Witkoff, chief govt officer of World Liberty Monetary, the crypto platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump, reviews Bloomberg.
The celebrated visitor record made the occasion look extra like a state go to than a ceremony for a non-binding stablecoin settlement that’s exploratory in nature and doesn’t contain a significant monetary dedication. A gaggle photograph confirmed the 32-year-old son of Trump adviser Steve Witkoff flanked by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and CDF Area Marshal Asim Munir.
Standing on the opposite aspect of CDF Munir was a key participant in reworking the connection between the US and Pakistan over the previous 12 months: Bilal Bin Saqib, a 35-year-old self-described ‘crypto bro’ who says he labored three jobs to get via faculty, together with cleansing bogs. On the occasion, Saqib hailed the go to by Zachary Witkoff and different World Liberty Monetary executives as serving to to “put Pakistan on the map”.
Pakistan’s adept use of crypto diplomacy — or “biplomacy” as Saqib calls it, a reference to Bitcoin — has buttressed a burgeoning friendship between Trump and CDF Munir. The purple carpet therapy in Islamabad for the American president’s household enterprise underscores the rising depth of an more and more essential geopolitical relationship, seen by Pakistan’s emergence as a key middleman between the US and Iran in a struggle that threatens to upend the worldwide economic system.
Steve Witkoff confirmed final week that Pakistan delivered a 15-point motion plan, and Islamabad has additionally been talked about as a possible venue for any talks forward of Trump’s April 6 deadline for Iran to strike a deal or face assaults on important infrastructure. Pakistan additionally has an incentive to get this resolved: The nation is dealing with the prospect of an acute vitality scarcity as Iran blocks most ships from passing via the Strait of Hormuz.
“Given how essential private connections are within the Trump White Home’s coverage course of, Pakistan could effectively have purchased itself some affect within the White Home that advantaged it when it pitched itself to Washington as a mediator,” mentioned Michael Kugelman, resident senior fellow for South Asia on the Washington-based Atlantic Council, citing the offers with Zachary Witkoff. “With this unconventional US administration, unconventional elements will help your trigger — and that’s actually the case with crypto.”
Plucked from relative obscurity final 12 months, Saqib has abruptly change into one in every of Pakistan’s most influential figures. He’s cast partnerships with crypto luminaries resembling Changpeng Zhao, higher referred to as CZ, the billionaire founding father of Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency-exchange. He’s additionally rubbed shoulders with the likes of fund supervisor Cathie Wooden, Bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor and Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president who made Bitcoin authorized tender in 2021 and established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund.
But no relationship has paid extra diplomatic and business dividends than his shut ties with World Liberty Monetary, which named Saqib as an adviser final April. He stepped away from that function when he entered authorities service and wasn’t being paid, mentioned David Wachsman, a spokesman for World Liberty Monetary.
Final month, Saqib posted a selfie with Zachary Witkoff and different firm executives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida. That got here across the identical time that Pakistan reached an settlement with the US to revamp the Roosevelt Resort in Manhattan, a deal negotiated by Steve Witkoff.
“Due to crypto, doorways have opened,” Saqib mentioned in a latest interview. “New conversations have opened, belief has been constructed. We now have gotten a possibility to rebrand.”
White Home deputy press secretary Anna Kelly mentioned in an announcement that the US is working with Pakistan on quite a few subjects of mutual curiosity, together with vitality, important minerals and counterterrorism. Responding to a query about nation’s adoption of cryptocurrency and ties with World Liberty Monetary, Kelly mentioned: “There are not any conflicts of curiosity.” Trump solely acts within the “greatest curiosity of the American individuals” and his belongings are in a belief managed by his kids, she added.
For Pakistan, all of it quantities to a exceptional turnaround. The nation has spent a lot of the previous decade getting ready to chapter and diplomatic isolation because the US strengthened ties with India to counter China’s rising army and financial power. These dynamics abruptly modified final Might, when Pakistan’s generals credited Trump with stopping an armed battle in India — a declare New Delhi rejected outright, resulting in months of terse relations with the US.
Whereas the White Home has since mended ties with India, Trump repeatedly heaps reward on CDF Munir: At a Board of Peace assembly in February, the president referred to as Pakistan’s army chief a “nice common,” “nice man” and “critical fighter.” Pakistan has reciprocated with requires Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and different types of flattery, whereas additionally utilizing crypto as a option to additional cement ties with the White Home.
“For a rustic starved of world investor curiosity, aligning with Washington’s crypto pivot isn’t nearly tech,” mentioned Uzair Younus, who’s a associate at The Asia Group, a Washington DC-based advisory agency. “It’s about signaling relevance in a shifting world order.”
Till two years in the past, Pakistan wished little to do with crypto. The nation’s regulators had spent a decade retaining the trade at arm’s size, citing issues over fraud, ponzi schemes and cash laundering dangers. Scuffling with excessive inflation, heavy debt and dwindling overseas reserves, Pakistan was additionally reliant on a bailout from the Worldwide Financial Fund that it had struggled to pay again.
However by 2024, sentiment shifted. An financial restoration coincided with a realization inside Pakistan’s army institution that crypto may very well be a helpful bargaining chip in world diplomacy. The nation rushed to go a legislation governing digital belongings, set up a devoted regulator and invite world exchanges to use for licenses. It additionally proposed a nationwide crypto reserve and earmarked 2,000 megawatts — about 5.0 per cent of its energy grid — for crypto mining.
As a part of that push, it wanted somebody to supervise the whole lot — and that’s the place Saqib entered the image. Beginning in March of final 12 months, he was appointed to a sequence of positions in fast succession: The finance minister’s chief adviser on crypto, chief govt officer of the Pakistan Crypto Council, particular assistant to the prime minister on blockchain and crypto. Lastly he ended up as chairman of the Pakistan Digital Belongings Regulatory Authority.
Precisely how he skyrocketed to change into one in every of Pakistan’s most influential officers in such a brief period of time stays unclear. When requested who approached him to affix the federal government, Saqib wouldn’t give specifics, solely mentioning it was the Finance Ministry.
Responding to a query on his experience, Saqib mentioned it was “primarily turning an concept into execution.”
“I’m not a dealer,” he mentioned. “I’m a builder. I’m the artist, not the scientist.”Nevertheless Saqib defines it, abruptly he’s seeing a number of success. Initially from Lahore, Pakistan’s second-most populous metropolis, Saqib mentioned his curiosity in crypto began throughout Bitcoin’s historic bull run in 2017, when it surged from beneath $1,000 in January to $14,000 by the tip of the 12 months.
Spending time in each the UK and Pakistan, Saqib mentioned he labored three jobs whereas getting a bachelor’s diploma, together with on the college’s grocery retailer the place he manned the register, stocked cabinets and cleaned bogs. After later receiving a graduate diploma on the London Faculty of Economics for social innovation and entrepreneurship, he was quickly giving TED Talks and acknowledged by Forbes for his work serving to poor ladies entry ingesting water at a charity referred to as Tayaba, which he based along with his brother in 2019.
Whereas within the UK throughout Covid, Saqib co-founded the One Million Meals marketing campaign to ship contemporary meals to well being employees and others in want, a transfer that gained him recognition from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in addition to the royal household, which honored him as a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
For all his accolades in social work, Saqib struggled to search out his footing within the crypto area. Within the 4 years previous to his appointment in Pakistan, Saqib’s LinkedIn profile exhibits he was at The Coin Grasp, whose profile web page says it has two-to-10 workers and goes by the slogan “Serving to Tokens Develop Routes to Web3 Markets.”
Within the interview, Saqib acknowledged he’s had some tough occasions, with out going into particulars.“In crypto, failure is the most effective trainer,” he mentioned. “There isn’t any formal college for this. And also you be taught by doing, by making errors and getting again up each time.”
“One factor I do know,” he added. “If you happen to throw sufficient mud towards the wall, one thing will stick.”It didn’t take lengthy for Saqib to make his mark after he formally began working with Pakistan’s authorities in March 2025. The subsequent month he persuaded Binance’s Zhao — who had just lately completed a US jail time period after being convicted for failing to arrange applicable cash laundering safeguards — to signal on as a strategic advisor to the Pakistan Crypto Council. Trump would find yourself pardoning Zhao in October.
“The chef pulled as much as Pakistan. We cooking heavy — good vibes, no brakes!” Saqib posted concerning the go to on X, the place his profile image is a photograph of himself carrying a T-shirt declaring “cryptocurrency isn’t a criminal offense.”
A Binance spokesperson mentioned the corporate had obtained permission from Pakistan’s regulator to conduct actions within the nation, and “stays dedicated to working in full compliance with all relevant regulatory necessities and to working carefully with native authorities to help the accountable growth of the digital asset ecosystem.”
Getting Zhao on board was simply the beginning. Some three weeks later, Saqib hosted World Liberty Monetary’s Zachary Witkoff and different executives in Islamabad, the place the corporate signed a ‘letter of intent’ with Pakistan’s authorities to deepen cooperation on stablecoin adoption.
Pakistan publicized the second with enthusiasm. World Liberty Monetary is “backed by the Trump household, together with President Donald Trump and his sons,” and Trump has “personally endorsed WLF,” the federal government mentioned in an announcement on the time.
Zachary Witkoff equally has lofty ambitions. In a video dialog with Saqib in Might posted from Lahore’s scenic Shalimar Gardens, he spoke about wanting to assist digitize Pakistan’s economic system, tokenize the nation’s “trillions of {dollars}” value of rare-earth minerals and goal the world’s third-largest unbanked inhabitants with companies like digital wallets and stablecoins. Pakistan, he mentioned, has “huge potential.”
Later in Might, Saqib pitched Pakistan’s emergence as a crypto participant at a Bitcoin convention in Las Vegas, which additionally drew attendees resembling US Vice President JD Vance and the US president’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, each co-founders of World Liberty Monetary. A number of days later, Saqib was on the White Home assembly with Bo Hines, who was then director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Belongings.
The next month, Saqib discovered himself as a last-minute addition to a Pakistani delegation heading to the US for commerce talks. Whereas on a household trip in a Himalayan resort city that hardly had any cell reception, an official referred to as him with an pressing message: “You’re going to Washington. Pack shortly.”
Regardless of having no background in tariffs, no concept of the agenda and no go well with to put on within the conferences, Saqib jumped on the alternative. As soon as he landed in DC, he made a beeline to purchase a blazer off the rack. The subsequent morning, seated throughout from American commerce officers, he was holding forth on digital belongings and commerce corridors. By the point he left Washington, he had helped draft the framework for a commerce deal.
That settlement was one in every of a number of tangible advantages Pakistan obtained from the Trump administration. It reduce tariffs on Pakistani items to 19 per cent, far decrease than many Asian friends and effectively beneath US charges on the time on Indian merchandise, which climbed as excessive as 50 per cent earlier than Trump introduced them all the way down to 18 per cent in January. The Trump administration formally designated the Balochistan Liberation Military a terrorist group, a bunch that Pakistan has lengthy sought to outlaw internationally.
For the US, Pakistan affords a number of prizes. Apart from being a strategically positioned nuclear energy, the nation additionally might assist the US diversify important mineral provide chains. In September, Missouri-based US Strategic Metals signed a memorandum of understanding with a military-owned agency to develop rare-earth assets.
Trump’s household enterprise additionally stands to profit from entry to Pakistan’s digital asset market. The nation has 40 million crypto customers with an estimated buying and selling quantity of greater than $300 billion, in keeping with the Finance Ministry, one of many world’s highest adoption charges as residents search for funding options in an economic system with power inflation.
A lot can all the time go flawed, notably as oil costs surge. Pakistan nonetheless must pay again the Worldwide Financial Fund, which has proven an aversion to sovereign crypto experiments. El Salvador discovered the arduous manner: Bitcoin adoption strained relations with the IMF, contributing to stalled funding negotiations.
Trump has additionally proven he can shortly activate any chief, regardless of how chummy they appear. He might demand that Pakistan, which final 12 months signed a defence settlement with Saudi Arabia, be part of the combat towards Iran in some vogue.
For Saqib, nevertheless, the main target is on build up tech expertise amongst Pakistan’s youthful generations to allow them to develop the economic system and keep away from operating to the IMF each few years for money. And he’s optimistic that the nation is on course regardless of all of the uncertainty across the globe.“It’s a variety of serendipity, a variety of good timing,” Saqib mentioned. “All the celebs have aligned.”
