Rain Financial, a cryptocurrencies trading company based in Bahrain is trying to persuade authorities in Pakistan to develop a legal framework to allow formal trading in cryptocurrencies.
In Pakistan trading in crypto is not considered illegal, although the State Bank (SBP) has in the past issued a notice to the public refraining them from trading in cryptocurrencies. According to the previous State Bank governor trading in crypto is risky and outweighed the benefits.
In an interview to a local media outlet, Rain Financial Country General Manager Zeeshan Ahmed said, “Presently trading in cryptocurrencies is ongoing in Pakistan in the informal sector and as per the Global Crypto Adoption Index Pakistan is among the top ranking countries. Since crypto trading is unregulated in Pakistan the government is not able to collect any sort of tax from the investors”.
Rain Financial is interested in a regulated market and believes in licensed trading platforms, therefore prior to moving into a market such as Pakistan they are engaging the regulator and concerned financial authorities to show them the benefit from trading in crypto.
Rain Financial was incorporated as a crypto asset company in 2017, a crypto policy framework was issued in Bahrain in 2018 and Rain Financial got licensed under it in 2019. Presently the company is a regional player in the Middle East and plans to expand its reach.
The global crypto market for the past six months has been extremely volatile and faced huge losses. Although Country General Manager Rain Financial believes that the market volatility will come down in the long run and that the present global adoption rate of crypto is only seven per cent, which is still very low.
Moreover, the Country General Manager is of the view that once the central bank in Pakistan allows formal trading in cryptocurrencies after which Pakistan is expected to be a high volume, low transaction market and the crypto trading app users will increase many folds as the market becomes regulated. It is expected that the market size will be around 70 to 80 million users one year after market formalization takes place.
