Pakistan’s newly minted Virtual Assets Ordinance has sparked headlines, but retail confidence will not be won in parliament. With over 25 million users and a consistent ranking among the top 10 countries for grassroots crypto adoption, Pakistan holds a strong position to become a major force in the global digital economy.

Yet, after losing an estimated $100 million to a nationwide Ponzi scheme, local investors have become allergic to invisible guarantees. As Pakistan builds its regulatory future, it must demand a higher standard from the industry. Accepting fuzzy assurances of security is no longer viable; the future of Pakistan’s digital-asset boom must be built on verifiable Proof of Protection.

The limits of today’s trust model

For years, the primary trust signal has been Proof of Reserves. Through Merkle-tree tools, exchanges prove they hold user assets on a 1:1 basis. However, PoR only answers “Are my coins there?” but not “Will they survive a breach?” It proves existence, not resilience.

A platform can show full reserves one moment and lose them to an exploit the next — with users left holding nothing but an old snapshot.

Exchanges that stop at solvency audits are betting that legislation will force competitors to do the same. Market discipline moves faster: in a country processing more than $30 billion in annual remittances and hosting an estimated tens of millions of crypto users, money will flow toward venues that show — in real time — how user safety is funded and insulated from discretionary delays.

Building compensation into code

The new standard should be a transparent framework that undergoes third-party........

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