In a recent update, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has seized bank accounts of 1,064 individuals on basis of requests received by the Cyber Crime Reporting Center (CCRC) in Islamabad. According to sources, an inquiry was registered on 27 September 2021 against 1, 064 people who were carrying out transactions worth Rs. 51 million on mobile exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, and Coinmama.
The sources also stated that the credit cards were associated with bank accounts as well which had traces of cryptocurrencies. These were blocked by several banks, bank accounts using Binance P2P were also frozen. The FIA has been investigating the matter so that the country does not suffer at the hands of cryptocurrencies.
The sale and purchase of virtual assets are prohibited under the State Bank of Pakistan’s Circular No. 3 of the Banking Policy and Regulation Department (BPRD) dated 6 April 2018. Anyone who is involved in using Pakistani banks or cards to buy or sell cryptocurrency, their accounts may get suspended for an indefinite period of time.