In a striking testament to Pakistan’s growing role in the global digital-asset revolution, The Wall Street Journal’s 31 October 2025 investigative feature, titled “How a Billionaire Felon Boosted Trump’s Crypto Company en Route to a Pardon,” places Minister of State for Crypto & Blockchain Bilal Bin Saqib, among a select circle of international figures shaping the future of crypto, AI, and financial diplomacy.
The WSJ article mentions Saqib 11 times, underscoring the publication’s deep focus on his leadership at the intersection of geopolitics, technology, and digital finance.
The publication references Saqib alongside some of the most influential names in the crypto world — Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), members of the Trump family, and leading Emirati investors — portraying him as a new kind of statesman for the blockchain era.
The WSJ describes Bilal as a “globe-trotting ambassador for World Liberty” and highlights his leadership as head of Pakistan’s State Crypto Council and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Crypto and Blockchain, noting his role in connecting global partners with country's emerging crypto and AI ecosystem.
According to the Journal, Saqib met with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Trump family associate Zach Witkoff during a private Binance summit in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, where he represented Pakistan’s growing crypto sector on the global stage. A few weeks later, Zhao and Saqib met again in Lahore with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, where Saqib hailed Zhao as “a movement” and discussed Pakistan’s digital finance roadmap.
The WSJ also confirmed that Saqib helped arrange an agreement between Pakistan’s government and World Liberty Financial — the US-based crypto firm partly owned by the Trump family — marking one of Pakistan’s first direct collaborations with a major Western crypto venture.
Appointed in May 2025 as special assistant to the prime minister on Crypto, Saqib has been central to the development of Pakistan’s new crypto regulatory framework. Under his oversight, Binance is reportedly in line to receive one of the country’s first crypto-exchange licences, signalling a major milestone for formalising Pakistan’s blockchain economy.
The Journal further reported that Saqib has been working with World Liberty to create policy frameworks for exporting stablecoin systems to other countries, reinforcing his role as a thought leader beyond Pakistan.
“A Pakistani name now appears in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the world’s biggest crypto power story, not as a spectator, but as a strategic player shaping international deals,” an analyst noted.
Under Saqib’s leadership, Pakistan has rapidly transformed from a high-potential frontier market into one of the top three fastest-growing crypto economies in the world, attracting global exchanges, institutional investors, and mining companies eager to enter a formally regulated South Asian market.
Saqib was most recently seen at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, where he engaged with global leaders, investors, and AI innovators, including the CEO of JP Morgan, Ripple, the former CEO of Google, the founder of Reddit, and the Prime Minister of Albania, among other distinguished figures shaping the future of technology and finance. True to form, he was doing what he does best, bringing the world’s focus back to Pakistan as a serious, forward-thinking hub for emerging technologies like crypto, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
Analysts say Pakistan’s emergence in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage is more than symbolic — it’s strategic.
“Seeing Pakistan mentioned in the same breath as the Trump–Binance axis and UAE sovereign investors marks a pivotal shift,” one observer noted. “It’s a signal that Pakistan is no longer a passive participant in the digital economy; it’s setting the rules.”
This recognition from one of the world’s most respected financial publications underscores both Pakistan’s ascent as a thought leader in the digital economy and Bilal Bin Saqib’s emergence as a leader from Pakistan in the new era of AI and blockchain technologies.