Pakistan plans to consider issuing a rupee-backed stablecoin and is developing a CBDC pilot.

According to ChainCatcher, citing a report from Cointelegraph, Faisal Mazhar, Deputy Director of the Payment Systems Department at the State Bank of Pakistan, stated that with the assistance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a central bank digital currency (CBDC) prototype is under development and is planned to undergo a pilot phase before full-scale rollout.

Additionally, according to Zafar Masud, Chairman of the Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA), the country is seriously considering issuing a Pakistan Rupee-backed stablecoin and will promote improvements in digital asset regulation. He noted that delays in digital asset regulation could result in the loss of up to 25 billions USD in economic development opportunities.