The world is changing fast – Trump is isolating the US from its former allies, withdrawing from multilateral agreements and moving the country onto a path of isolationism and deregulation. His administration has departed from the economic doctrine of his predecessor (Bidenomics), and he’s treating America more like a streamlined corporation, slashing jobs, and recalibrating the market orientation, and challenging the very institutions America had strived to create.

In a post-pandemic world, the US is insulating itself from the global economy so that it can continue its plans for a radical domestic liberalization. Amid his deregulation drive, the inclusion of several cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, XRP, Solana etc.) in the “Digital Asset Stockpile” and the placement of Bitcoin (acquired through forfeiture proceedings) in the “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” signals strongly how the monetary system could evolve in due course.

Amid these developments, Pakistan has officially launched the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) in March 2025. Although long overdue, it is a move in the right direction given these global developments.

A walk down the memory lane might help us draw some parallels to the current geopolitical economic developments that are happening.

As Winston Churchill once said, “The further back you can look the further forward you are likely to see.”

These words remind us of the fact that history has its own way of repeating itself, even if it comes to economic or monetary history. In the 19th century, the US had more than 8000 bank notes much like the unregulated cryptocurrencies today that are highly volatile. The creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 centralized the distribution of bank notes, essentially creating the dollar as we know it today.

Later, the Bretton Woods Conference cemented the hegemony of the dollar by pegging other currencies to it. Another significant move........

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