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Crypto News: An Islamic cleric in Pakistan has issued a fatwa declaring cryptocurrency trading haram under Sharia law. Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani said last week that trading in cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, is not permissible under Sharia, adding that such assets are not wealth or property as per Islamic definition.

Usmani said the terms cryptocurrency, virtual currency, token and stablecoin all describe the same category of digital assets, and added that changing the terminology does not change their religious status under Sharia law.

Who is Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani?

It is known that Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is the Chairman of the Sharia Board of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) based in Bahrain, whose standards are followed by more than 200 Islamic Financial Institutions around the world.

Impact on religious investors after fatwa

Although the fatwa is a religious opinion, not a law, market participants were quick to notice signs of panic selling. This led to selling at some places as some religious investors in specific markets like Pakistan, India and UAE immediately sold their digital holdings.
The special thing is that Pakistan itself is one of the largest crypto markets in the world in terms of retail activity. According to Chainalysis, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, has about 7 million users in Pakistan, which is the world’s third largest crypto market and is worth $1.5 billion. People told ET Tech that India’s crypto market is worth about $2.5 billion, while UAE’s is about $1.5 billion.

Pakistani government has been a supporter of cryptos

It is noteworthy that the Pakistani government has always been associated with cryptos. This new development comes as the Pakistani government aims to accelerate crypto trading, and hopes to become a regional crypto hub. In April 2025, World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform majority-owned by the Trump family, signed a letter of intent with the Pakistan Crypto Council to promote blockchain adoption in the country.

The council, which was advised by former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, has outlined plans to build Pakistan as the “crypto capital of South Asia” to compete with regional markets like the UAE. He further said, “Pakistan has an opportunity to lead the world in Shariah-compliant digital finance, and this leadership must be built together with our scholars.

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