A 35-year-old ‘crypto bro’ helped Pakistan win over Trump’s world

At an ornate building in the heart of Islamabad, Pakistan’s most powerful leaders gathered in Jan to welcome a special visitor: Zachary Witkoff, chief executive officer of World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump.

The prestigious guest list made the event look more like a state visit than a ceremony for a non-binding stablecoin agreement that is exploratory in nature and doesn’t involve a major financial commitment. A group photo showed the 32-year-old son of Trump adviser Steve Witkoff flanked by Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Standing on the other side of Munir was a key player in transforming the relationship between the US and Pakistan over the past year: Bilal Bin Saqib, a 35-year-old self-described “crypto bro” who says he worked three jobs to get through college, including cleaning toilets. At the event, Saqib hailed the visit by Zachary Witkoff and other World Liberty Financial executives as helping to “put Pakistan on the map.”

Plucked from relative obscurity, Saqib has suddenly become one of Pakistan’s most influential figures. He’s forged partnerships with crypto luminaries such as Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, the billionaire founder of Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency-exchange. He’s also rubbed shoulders with the likes of fund manager Cathie Wood, Bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor and Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president who made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021 and established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Fund.

Last month, Saqib posted a selfie with Zachary Witkoff and other company executives at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. That came around the same time that Pakistan reached a deal with the US to revamp the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. “Because of crypto, doors have opened,” Saqib said in a recent interview. “New conversations have opened, trust has been built. We have an opportunity to rebrand.”

Exactly how he skyrocketed to become one of Pakistan’s most influential officials in such a short amount of time remains unclear. Originally from Lahore, Saqib said his interest in crypto started during Bitcoin’s historic bull run in 2017, when it surged from below $1,000 in Jan to $14,000 by the end of the year.

It didn’t take long for Saqib to make his mark after he started working with Pakistan’s govt in March 2025. The next month he persuaded Binance’s Zhao to sign on as a strategic adviser to the Pakistan Crypto Council. Trump would end up pardoning Zhao in Oct. Some three weeks later, Saqib hosted World Liberty Financial’s Zachary Witkoff and other executives in Islamabad, where the company signed a “letter of intent” with Pakistan’s govt to deepen cooperation on stablecoin adoption.

Trump’s family business also stands to benefit from access to Pakistan’s virtual asset market. The country has 40 million crypto users with an estimated trading volume of more than $300 billion, according to the finance ministry, one of the world’s highest adoption rates as residents look for investment alternatives in an economy with chronic inflation.

Trump has also shown he can quickly turn on any leader, no matter how chummy they seem. He could demand that Pakistan, which last year signed a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia, join the fight against Iran in some fashion — a scenario that would put Munir in a tight spot. For Saqib, however, the focus is on building up tech skills among Pakistan’s younger generations so they can develop the economy and avoid running to the IMF every few years for cash.