Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency has established a dedicated unit to investigate digital asset-related crimes, including money laundering and terrorism financing, according to an announcement July 21.
The unit operates within the FIA's National Command and Control Centre (NC3), placing cryptocurrency investigations under a single command structure rather than distributing them across regional offices. Similar structures exist in larger economies as digital asset trading volumes and cross-border transaction flows have grown in jurisdictions without centralized crypto oversight.
Pakistan has struggled to regulate cryptocurrency trading for years. The State Bank of Pakistan imposed restrictions on banks providing services to crypto exchanges in 2018, effectively pushing the market underground while legitimate trading continued through informal channels and peer-to-peer networks. No official figures on Pakistan's crypto user base or transaction volume exist, but Pakistani exchanges and peer-to-peer platforms have processed billions of dollars in trades since 2020, according to blockchain analysis firms.
The FIA's move comes after pressure from the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental anti-money laundering body that cited Pakistan's weak cryptocurrency controls as a vulnerability. Pakistan committed to strengthening digital asset regulation as part of its FATF compliance roadmap. The country's crypto market has attracted users from neighboring Afghanistan, where Taliban rule since 2021 prompted capital flight into digital assets, and from Iran, where international sanctions limit banking options.
No staff count or budget allocation for the new unit was disclosed. The FIA did not announce specific criminal targets or ongoing investigations the unit would inherit.
The unit's creation follows years of ad-hoc enforcement. Pakistani authorities have conducted raids on crypto mining operations and arrested individuals accused of crypto-related fraud, but without a dedicated structure, cases moved slowly through different FIA departments. Centralizing cryptocurrency investigations under NC3 allows the agency to accelerate prosecution timelines and consolidate intelligence from multiple regions.
Whether the unit gains resources and prosecutorial teeth depends on the FIA's ability to recruit specialists trained in blockchain forensics and on political support from Pakistan's finance ministry, which has historically resisted crypto regulation over concerns about capital controls and tax collection. If the NC3 unit remains undersourced or lacks coordination with the State Bank and customs authority, crypto-related financial crimes will continue to move through the same informal channels that have sustained the market for eight years.
