Pakistan Considers Putting Its Eurobond Debt on the Blockchain — Cabinet Approval First

Pakistan is reviewing a plan to put its existing Eurobond debt on a blockchain, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Monday, November 2, 2026 — a move that would make the country one of the first sovereign borrowers to tokenise its international bonds. The proposal is not yet approved: the government will seek cabinet approval first, and only then invite formal proposals from the market.

Aurangzeb made the announcement in a virtual keynote address to the “Dialogue on Digital Assets and the Future of Banking”, organised by the Pakistan Banks’ Association in collaboration with Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His message was deliberately practical: digital assets must earn their place in Pakistan’s financial system by cutting costs for ordinary people and businesses, not by chasing novelty.

Key facts

What tokenising a Eurobond actually means

Tokenisation means creating a digital representation of a bond on a blockchain, so that ownership can be recorded and potentially transferred digitally rather than only through conventional clearing systems. The model under consideration — often called a digitally native note issued through a regulated market infrastructure — would create the bond on a regulated blockchain platform at the moment of issuance, with same-day settlement, before integrating with the international clearing systems that already serve Pakistan’s Eurobond programme.

For a sovereign borrower, the pitch is speed and cost: faster settlement, lower friction in cross-border payments, and a wider potential investor base, including overseas Pakistanis. Aurangzeb framed the test in household terms — whether a family can receive money from abroad at a lower cost, whether a business gets paid sooner, and whether an entrepreneur can obtain financing on reasonable terms — while financial stability is protected.

Why remittances are the second half of the story

Remittances are the use case that makes the proposal matter beyond capital markets. Pakistan received $41.6 billion in workers’ remittances last fiscal year, and first-quarter trends suggest inflows could exceed $44 billion this year. If tokenised rails can move that money more cheaply and quickly — including through Roshan Digital Accounts, which Aurangzeb named explicitly — the savings would land directly with millions of families.

That is also why the banking establishment was in the room. The dialogue brought together the Finance Ministry, PVARA, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and banking leaders, alongside international experts. State Bank Deputy Governor Saleem Ullah stressed practical use cases over technology itself, identifying blockchain-enabled remittances and Roshan Digital Accounts as areas worth exploring in a sandbox. SECP Commissioner Imtiaz Haider called for a clear, value-driven approach to tokenisation.

The framework that makes it possible — and its limits

Pakistan has moved fast from prohibition to a statutory framework. The Virtual Assets Act 2026 created PVARA to license and supervise virtual-asset service providers, and the licensing system was launched in August 2026, according to trade-press reporting. The State Bank has introduced a conditional mechanism allowing banks to provide services to licensed virtual-asset entities, subject to due diligence and segregation of client funds.

But the guardrails are explicit and remain in place: banks are still barred from investing in, trading or holding virtual assets using their own funds or customer deposits. Aurangzeb also stressed that innovation must come with appropriate safeguards, regulatory oversight and cybersecurity measures, and that the task now is making the framework effective through capable supervision and clear coordination between institutions.

The international templates cited are established ones, not experiments: JPMorgan’s use of deposit tokens for transfers between institutional clients, and the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agora, which is examining tokenised deposits and central bank reserves for cross-border settlement. Pakistan also co-convened a dialogue on blockchain and the tokenised future with the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies in New York in late September.

What is decided — and what is not

It is important to be precise about where this stands. What is confirmed: the government is reviewing tokenisation of existing Eurobond debt, cabinet approval is the next step, and an RFP will follow only after that approval. What is not confirmed: no timetable has been announced, no size for a tokenised tranche has been stated, and no decision has been taken on which existing bonds would be included.

The proposal also sits alongside a much larger debt picture: Pakistan’s public and guaranteed debt reached Rs90.98 trillion by June 2026, though the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 71.7%. Tokenisation would change how some of that debt is recorded and traded — it would not, on its own, reduce the amount owed. And with October inflation easing to 9.61%, the government has some breathing room to pursue structural reforms rather than emergency measures.

The December 2025 memorandum of understanding with Binance — to explore tokenising up to $2 billion of government assets including sovereign bonds, treasury bills and commodity reserves — shows this idea has been developing for nearly a year. The cabinet decision, when it comes, will show whether it moves from exploration to execution.

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