Japan’s Soramitsu Teams Up with Pakistan to Launch CBDC Pilot

Pakistan has announced plans to begin testing its own digital currency with support from Japan’s blockchain company Soramitsu before the end of 2025. The project aims to modernize payments and make banking services more accessible across the country.

Soramitsu, a Tokyo-based blockchain firm, develops digital payment systems and central bank digital currencies. It helped Cambodia launch the Bakong digital currency and will now assist Pakistan, which has a population of 250 million and a $400 billion economy achieve the same goal.

The project is designed to reduce reliance on cash, which remains common in rural areas where many people do not have bank accounts and wages are often paid in cash as per a report on Nikkei.

“Many transactions in rural areas are cash-based, even for wage payments, and the rate of people with bank accounts remains low,” said Masato Toriya, a Pakistan specialist and associate professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The digital currency could cut the high costs of handling cash and expand access to financial services.#CBDC