Last week, there were suddenly pockets of what could be termed panic selling of cryptocurrency holdings. It was unusual because there was no new significant geopolitical trigger and market observers told the Economic Times that the selling was largely observed in UAE, Pakistan and India.
The reason for the sudden panic, it turns out, was the release of a month-old ruling by an influential Pakistani cleric, who is a leading authority on Islamic finance. The timing of the ruling comes just months after the financially-strapped country created a legal framework for virtual assets and has been trying to bring cryptocurrency-linked businesses into its formal financial system.