US President Trump expressed keen interest in crypto at the ‘historic’ White House lunch with the army chief of Pakistan, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
According to the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), the media and PR relations wing of the Pakistan armed forces, both the heads discussed economic development and crypto.
“Discussions also encompassed avenues for expanding bilateral cooperation in multiple domains, including trade, economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies,” the ISPR noted.
Trump Has Personal Interest in Crypto Talks
The luncheon meeting took place amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, with Trump looking for a possible US involvement.
According to South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman, Trump takes a “deep personal interest” in talking crypto. “There’s been US-Pak engagement on critical minerals, crypto, and Counter Terrorism.”
Further, diplomatic sources in Washington noted that the meeting wasn’t arranged through routine diplomatic channels. Pakistan’s daily, Dawn, reported that deepened counter-terrorism cooperation and engagement with crypto-linked influence networks, helped Pakistan secure the meeting with Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump also praised both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Army chief for their roles in reducing and de-escalating tensions between India-Pakistan in May.
“Prime Minister Modi just left a little while ago and we are working a trade deal with India and also with Pakistan,” Trump noted. “I am so happy. Two very smart people decided not to keep going with the war. Those are two big nuclear powers.”
Pakistan’s Crypto Ambition Rises
Pakistan has been mulling over several crypto advancements, including a plan to set up a Bitcoin reserve. The country’s Crypto Council noted that Bitcoin will be held and Pakistan will “never sell them.”
Interestingly, in April, Pakistan partnered with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a company linked to the US President Donald Trump’s family. Per the agreement, the collaboration will explore asset tokenization, stablecoin development and DeFi regulatory frameworks. However, details of the deal remain vague.
Crypto is already widely popular in Pakistan, with around 20 million users, placing it among the top nations in crypto trading. Additionally, global crypto exchange platforms like Binance are showing interest, as Pakistan has committed 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity to fuel Bitcoin mining and AI data centres.
Hussain Nadeem, a policy strategist and Pakistani AI expert, said last month that Pakistan’s core interest in crypto is to gain access to the White House.
“The regime has only ONE interest in Crypto: Access to Trump White House, and sadly this hype is all about that, nothing more.”
Following the meeting between Trump and Pakistan’s army head, Nadim added that they were looking for “quick wins.”
“Pakistan Army Chief is happy to promise both: counter terrorism, critical minerals, and crypto (quick wins).”
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