Pakistan and El Salvador sign crypto partnership to advance Bitcoin adoption
Pakistan eyes El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy amid IMF loan conditions
Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council and special assistant to Pakistan’s prime minister on crypto and blockchain, recently met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in San Salvador.
The meeting was aimed at fostering knowledge-sharing between the two nations on Bitcoin adoption and blockchain innovation, reports Cointelegraph.
Saqib praised Bukele’s leadership and conviction in championing Bitcoin despite international skepticism, calling him a “leader from the future.” This praise underscores Pakistan’s recognition of El Salvador’s early and bold crypto policies, particularly its state-level Bitcoin adoption. According to BitcoinTreasuries.net, El Salvador currently holds over 6,240 BTC worth approximately $740 million, a figure Pakistan is observing closely as it drafts its own digital asset roadmap.
Letter of Intent Signals Formal Collaboration
A major outcome of the meeting was the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI) between the El Salvador Bitcoin Office and the Pakistan Crypto Council. This agreement lays the groundwork for cooperative initiatives, particularly in public sector Bitcoin integration, financial inclusion via blockchain, and regulatory policy development for emerging markets. Pakistan is especially interested in applying El Salvador’s experiences to its own landscape as it continues to implement its $7 billion IMF loan program, which runs through 2027.
The LoI comes amid Pakistan’s growing interest in leveraging blockchain and crypto to reshape its financial system. Saqib and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb also recently engaged in a virtual dialogue with Michael Saylor, the Bitcoin proponent whose firm Strategy holds over $62 billion in BTC, further signaling Pakistan’s intensifying interest in digital assets.
IMF Resistance Clashes with National Bitcoin Goals
Despite its ambitions, Pakistan faces resistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), particularly over its recent proposal to allocate 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity for crypto mining and AI infrastructure. The IMF raised concerns about providing subsidized energy to such high-consumption industries, arguing that such measures could distort the broader energy market.
These objections come as Pakistan seeks to make productive use of seasonal energy surpluses, especially during winter months. Nonetheless, the country appears undeterred, with the Pakistan Crypto Council continuing to advance its digital transformation agenda, now with El Salvador as a strategic partner. This evolving partnership could shape a new model for crypto-led economic development in emerging nations navigating complex global financial frameworks.
Recently we wrote that Ripple has announced a major partnership with Ctrl Alt, a real estate tokenization infrastructure platform used by the Dubai Land Department (DLD), to provide secure custody services for tokenized property title deeds on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
