In a landmark development for global digital finance, Pakistan has announced a strategic partnership with World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance project led by the Trump family, to develop a pioneering dollar-pegged stablecoin. The agreement, confirmed by sources and expected to be formally announced, represents a significant step by a sovereign state to modernize its financial infrastructure through collaboration with a private blockchain entity.
The partnership will see WLFI collaborate with Pakistan’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan, to integrate its USD1 stablecoin into a regulated digital payments framework. The initiative aims to facilitate cross-border transactions, particularly remittances—a critical sector for Pakistan, which saw inflows exceeding $30 billion in 2024. The stablecoin is designed to be fully backed by U.S. dollar reserves, ensuring price stability, and will operate alongside Pakistan's emerging digital currency infrastructure.
World Liberty Financial, launched in late 2023, is a DeFi platform emphasizing regulatory compliance and institutional-grade products. Eric Trump serves as the public chairman of WLFI’s advisory board, with other family members in strategic roles, lending significant visibility to the project. The firm's architecture reportedly utilizes zero-knowledge proofs for privacy and layer-2 scaling for efficiency.
The technical framework for the Pakistan stablecoin will likely involve a hybrid model, combining centralized oversight for regulatory compliance with decentralized settlement via WLFI’s protocols. A dedicated Pakistani government task force, including representatives from the State Bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and the Ministry of Information Technology, will oversee the project.
The implementation is projected to follow a phased timeline: finalizing agreements in Q2 2025, developing a minimum viable product (MVP) in Q3 2025, launching a limited pilot with selected financial institutions in Q4 2025, with a potential public rollout in 2026 contingent on pilot results and regulatory approval.
This move is part of Pakistan's broader push to become a global crypto hub, which has included establishing a virtual assets regulatory authority, permitting exchanges like Binance and HTX to operate, and exploring real-world asset tokenization.
