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Pakistan’s best-known face in crypto just added another headline to his name and this time it comes with a set of car keys.
Waqar Zaka, the trader, YouTuber, and self-styled crypto evangelist who has spent nearly a decade pushing Pakistan to take digital assets seriously, has won the WEEX TradFi Masters, a global multi-asset trading tournament that pulled in more than 3,000 participants. The prize: a brand-new 2026 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, handed to him personally at a ceremony in Dubai.
Here’s everything worth knowing about the win, how the competition actually worked, and why it’s already reigniting an old debate back home.
What Was the WEEX TradFi Masters, Exactly?
Most crypto trading competitions are, well, just crypto. Traders duke it out on Bitcoin and altcoin pairs, and whoever posts the best percentage gain wins. The TradFi Masters was built differently.
Instead of restricting entrants to digital assets, the contest asked traders to work across an entire spread of markets stocks, gold, silver, broader commodities, and cryptocurrencies all through a single platform. The idea was to find out who could actually adapt across asset classes, not just who got lucky on one coin.
A few things set this tournament apart from the usual leaderboard-chasing format:
- No teams. Every entrant traded solo.
- No referral incentives. Nobody was rewarded for recruiting more sign-ups.
- Real capital, not a simulator. Every top finisher traded with their own money.
- A genuine global field. Over 3,000 traders entered from across the world.
That structure is part of why the result is getting attention this wasn’t a promotional giveaway dressed up as a competition. It was a straight performance contest.
The Final Numbers: Who Finished Where
All three top finishers competed with the same starting capital, which is what makes the final leaderboard easy to compare:
| Rank | Trader | Country | Return | Profit | Final Account Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Waqar Zaka | Pakistan | 74% | $74,000 | $174,000 |
| 2nd | — | South Korea | 57% | $57,000 | $157,000 |
| 3rd | — | China | 35% | $35,000 | $135,000 |
Zaka didn’t lead from day one, either. He reportedly worked his way up from around fourth position before overtaking the field to close out the contest in first place over roughly three weeks of trading. It’s worth noting this wasn’t his first rodeo on this stage he placed eighth in a similar tournament a year earlier, so this win reads as a genuine improvement rather than a one-off fluke.
Why This Matters Beyond the Trophy
It’s tempting to file this under “influencer wins car,” but there’s more context worth unpacking.
This is the first time a Pakistani trader has topped a global tournament of this scale. For a country whose relationship with cryptocurrency has swung between outright bans and cautious openness over the years, a Pakistani name sitting at the top of an international, multi-asset leaderboard is a notable data point regardless of how anyone feels about Zaka personally.
Zaka isn’t a random entrant, either. He’s been formally associated with government-level crypto initiatives before, having been brought in by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to advise on blockchain and cryptocurrency matters. That existing profile is part of why his win is being covered well beyond crypto circles and into mainstream Pakistani media.
The Bitcoin Reserve Conversation Is Back
A win like this doesn’t stay contained to trading circles for long, and predictably, it’s revived one of Zaka’s longest-running arguments: that Pakistan should build a national Bitcoin reserve.
For years now, he’s made the case that the government should treat Bitcoin as a strategic national asset buying and holding it the way countries hold gold reserves with the reasoning that long-term appreciation could help chip away at national debt and reduce dependency on external lenders like the IMF.
It’s not a mainstream policy position, and reasonable people disagree on whether a country with Pakistan’s macroeconomic profile should be taking on volatile digital assets as a reserve strategy. But Zaka’s supporters are quick to point out that he was floating this idea well before “strategic Bitcoin reserve” became an internationally discussed concept in policy circles. Whether or not Islamabad ever acts on it, expect this win to give the proposal fresh oxygen in local commentary.
A Word of Caution Worth Repeating
It says something that even Zaka’s own public channels, alongside congratulations, carry a blunt reminder to followers: never hand your money over to anyone claiming they’ll trade it for you. Trading competition wins even legitimate ones tend to attract copycat “investment managers” promising similar returns. A 74% return over roughly three weeks is an exceptional outcome, not a repeatable baseline, and it came with genuine downside risk across volatile markets. Treat it as a trading result, not a template.
Summary:
Waqar Zaka’s win at the WEEX TradFi Masters is a legitimate, verifiable result a real-money, multi-asset competition with a global field, decided purely on performance. Beating out 3,000+ traders to finish with a 74% return, and doing it as the first Pakistani to top a contest of this scale, is a genuine milestone for him and for Pakistan’s visibility in the global crypto and trading space.
Whether it moves the needle on his Bitcoin reserve pitch remains to be seen but for now, Zaka’s driving home in a G-Wagon, and the conversation around Pakistan’s crypto future just got a little louder.
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