When I woke up today, I was completely shocked to read the message of my friend where he informed me that Bitcoin and Onecoin to be declared illegal in Pakistan. This is dangerous for me since I do operations through our licensed local exchange Urdubit.
According to TechJuice, Bitcoin and Onecoin is now illegal in Pakistan. FIA recommending the Government to officially announce that Bitcoin business is no longer acceptable in Pakistan. When they were asked for the reason of this ban, they replied that Bitcoin doesn't come under tax net and therefore, it is illegal. Another reason was darkweb activities.
FIA takes action against bitcoin traders - one arrested
I was not sure about the news and started doing more research. I found one television channel broadcasting the same news at 8th February 2018 with the addition that one guy is arrested for doing Bitcoin business and his laptop and phone is under their custody. Here's the video link:
https://www.facebook.com/kolachian/videos/2020543801527003/
According to the owner of Urdubit, this is a fake news and has nothing to do with reality. He says that there is nothing mentioned in SBP site to confirm that news and is more likely a rumor.
This is getting dangerous. Seems like 2018 is the year full of dangers for Bitcoin and looking at the market that is following Bitcoin, seems like if Bitcoin collapses, the whole cryptocurrency market will suffer. All you need is one rumor from a reputable site and Viola! the market starts crashing because of nuts.
What do you think guys? Is it for real? It's a warning to be cautious. Though I believe that there won't be a big impact of this reported ban (so far, no confirmation from SBP) on the global crypto market as the volume of Bitcoin trading is not so big in Pakistan but as for Pakistanis, they'll have to say Good Bye to the crypto world! (or use blackhat techniques to hide their business).
Note: I think that it's a fake news since there is no mention of such thing at SBP official website. But we definitely need to keep our eyeballs there