UAE initiates landmark cross-border digital dirham payment

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance has signed off on the establishment of the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA), a body which will be responsible for the implementation of regulations governing blockchain and the digital assets sector. In a report published by Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn, the media outlet outlined that the Ministry of Finance has taken this step in an effort to embrace future innovation in the finance sector.  The new agency will be responsible for monitoring the operations of digital wallet service providers, stablecoin issuers, the development firms behind decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, crypto custodians and crypto exchange platforms. Photo by Hamid Roshaan on UnsplashFrom crypto ban to crypto regulationIn October 2022, Pakistan was removed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, from its grey list. The following year, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, Aisha Ghaus Pasha outlined that banning cryptocurrency was a condition of the country’s removal from the FATF grey list. Accordingly, the South Asian country proceeded to ban digital assets, with Ghaus Pasha declaring that crypto would “never be legalized in Pakistan.”Despite the adverse position taken previously by the authorities in Pakistan where digital assets were concerned, in 2024 a survey carried out by Chainalysis revealed that Pakistan featured strongly in terms of retail-level crypto adoption. With this latest development, Pakistan is moving forward progressively with digital assets, albeit that it is doing so while being cognizant of the current requirements demanded by FATF related to crypto. The newly-formed PDAA will act to ensure FATF-compliant innovation, while striving for economic inclusion and the adoption of digital assets in a responsible manner. Regulating to lead crypto innovation rather than catching upPakistan’s current Minister for Finance and Revenue, Muhammad Aurangzeb, said that “Pakistan must regulate not just to catch up — but to lead.” He added that through the establishment of the PDAA, a digital assets regulatory framework that protects consumers will be created. Furthermore, he claimed that such an approach would attract global investment, putting Pakistan “at the forefront of financial innovation.”Another area of focus for the PDAA will be the facilitation of the tokenization of government debt and national assets. Pakistan runs an annual average electricity surplus of 4,000 megawatts. In 2024, total electricity generation was recorded at 92,091 GWh while demand weighed in at 68,559 GWh. With that, the Pakistani authorities want the PDAA to create the correct conditions that will lead to regulated Bitcoin mining operators utilizing this energy resource. Other objectives which have been set out for the new agency include encouraging the growth of startups aimed at building blockchain-based solutions at scale, the regulation of what is estimated to be a $25 billion informal crypto market and the provision of legal clarity within the crypto sector in Pakistan for both local and international investors. This latest positive development follows the formation of the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) back in February. That event signaled a policy shift in Pakistan with regard to digital assets. In March PCC CEO Bilal bin Saqib said that Pakistan was done sitting on the sidelines and that the authorities now want to see Pakistan develop as a “leader in blockchain-powered finance.”

Binance announced on its blog on Sept 9 that its Indonesian subsidiary company, Tokocrypto, had secured a Physical Crypto Asset Trader (PFAK) license from the Southeast Asian country’s regulator, Bappebti. Compliant global growthThe company put itself forward as a candidate for licensing in 2019, and with the licensing award, it became the third crypto entity to be licensed. In its post on Binance Square, Binance claimed that the “PFAK license strengthens Tokocrypto’s position as a regulated and trusted platform in Indonesia's Web3 ecosystem.”  It called the five-year process “rigorous,” indicating that the license acquisition was critical not just for Tokocrypto but also relative to the overall development on Indonesia’s crypto and Web3 industry. The licensing now enables the company to trade as a fully authorized physical crypto asset trader in Indonesia. The licensing award comes just days after it was reported that Binance is inching ever closer to obtaining a full trading license in Kazakhstan, indicating that the company is expanding its global presence in a compliant manner. This development is likely to be significant for Binance and its subsidiary in terms of global growth efforts, given that a 2023 Chainalysis report found that ranked in terms of the pace of crypto adoption, Indonesia was placed seventh, making it an important market for the company.Photo by Fahrul Razi on UnsplashBinance CEO Richard Teng commented on the development, stating:“Binance is committed to fully supporting Tokocrypto in its mission to drive the growth of the Web3 ecosystem in the region.” Tokocrypto CEO Yadhono Rawis classed the company becoming “the third exchange to receive [a] PFAK license in Indonesia” as an important achievement in a “market which has 35 prospective crypto exchanges registered with Bappebti.”  Growing user-baseIn its Binance Square post, Binance also highlighted that Tokocrypto’s user base has now grown to 4.5 million users. Additionally, Tokocrypto is responsible for 43% of crypto trading within the Indonesian market in 2023, according to CoinGecko data. It’s understood that Binance has held a majority stake in Tokocrypto since a very early stage in the firm’s development.  Crypto tax revenue surgeRecently published data revealed that tax revenue generated through Indonesia’s crypto sector has surged. It appears that tax revenues have increased despite calls for the authorities to implement crypto tax policy reform. Earlier this year CoinDesk Indonesia speculated that high crypto taxation rates were responsible for a slump in crypto-related tax revenues. In March reports emerged that crypto transactions had increased by over 200%, with Tokocrypto’s Rawis attributing the uptick to a recovery in the Bitcoin unit price across all markets. In early 2025, it’s expected that crypto industry oversight will be transferred from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK). With that, it’s thought that some changes may be made to how crypto-related taxes are applied.

Binance’s venture capital arm, Binance Labs, has made an investment in South Korean blockchain games developer, GOMBLE. Binance Labs is a division of the global crypto exchange entity that identifies, invests, and empowers viable blockchain entrepreneurs, startups and communities. In a blog post published by the company late last month, Binance Labs outlined that it has participated in funding GOMBLE at a seed funding round stage. GOMBLE  is an affiliate of South Korea-based 111Percent, a casual mobile game publisher. Sustainable blockchain gamingFor its part, GOMBLE’s objective is to enable the global casual gamer community to experience blockchain games through reward mechanisms that are sustainable. An additional focus for the project is advancing NFT interoperability, through the development of mobile-based blockchain.The start-up plans to use the funding in order to develop and release its first mobile game, RumbyStars. Furthermore, it will continue to pursue a games-as-a-service (GaaS) model, with funding also being used to expand that GaaS-based platform.While blockchain-based gaming had something of an initial breakthrough through the emergence of Axie Infinity, that success was secured with a focus on blockchain rather than gaming, attracting participation via a play-to-earn approach from those already focused primarily on blockchain. Subsequently, many have questioned the sustainability of this approach from the perspectives of gameplay and the tokenomics that support it. A $25 billion market opportunityGOMBLE is focusing on addressing these two factors through its approach. Casual games in the Web2 sphere have seen an uptick in popularity. The casual games sector has the potential to reach a $25 billion market volume within four years. Bringing that Web3 focus on enjoyable game play to Web3 gaming extends that opportunity to blockchain-based gaming.Additionally, GOMBLE is working towards mistakes made with blockchain based gaming tokenomics in the past. It will focus on more balanced tokenomics using its $CRT token for governance. $CRT can be earned by players through a tournament prize system. From the other perspective, it can be spent on NFT purchases, tournament passes and in buying in-game items.This is how Yi He, Head of Binance Labs interprets GOMBLE’s approach: “Blockchain gaming needs to move away from the concept of ‘earning’ to what truly captures the hearts of billions of gamers: entertaining gameplay. GOMBLE’s experienced team and focus on building engaging, social, and sustainable blockchain games with flexible governance offers a pathway for delivering the value of Web3 to existing casual gamers, thus welcoming new users to the BNB Chain ecosystem.” RumbyStarsThe blockchain gaming start-up is planning for a soft release of its first game, RumbyStars within SouthEast Asia in Q2, 2023. Following that limited regional launch, the project will then broaden the offering to North America, South America, East Asia and Europe.Gomble’s CEO Jihoon Byun said that “Unlike existing blockchain games that focus on core games, GOMBLE aims to target the global market with easy and fun casual games that even non-gamers can enjoy. Starting with RumbyStars, GOMBLE is focused on building to provide users around the world with a pleasant experience and a greater diversity of games in the future.”In order to execute on the roadmap the project has set out for itself, it will recruit more development and design manpower. Furthermore, investment will be made in infrastructure in order to enable real-time service.