Crypto is ‘haram’: Top Pakistani cleric Mufti Taqi Usmani’s fatwa triggers sell-off as regulator seeks clarification

The Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), the country’s cryptocurrency regulator, has asked a leading Islamic seminary to clarify the religious status of different types of digital assets after a prominent Islamic scholar declared trading in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins to be “haram” (forbidden) under Sharia law, according to Reuters.

Bilal bin Saqib, chairman of PVARA, said the regulator requested clarification after Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, one of the Muslim world’s most influential Islamic clerics, ruled that cryptocurrency transactions are not permissible under Islamic principles, as per the report.