How an exchange works: brokers, custody, fees and P2P
After this lesson you can trace your rupees from deposit to ownership on PSX and on a crypto exchange, and see where custody, fees and P2P risks sit.
Exchange kaise kaam karta hai: broker, custody, fees aur P2P
PSX par shares licensed broker ke zariye khareede jate hain aur woh CDC mein aap ke naam par record hote hain; settlement agle working day (T+1) hota hai. Crypto exchange par aap ke coins exchange ke apne wallets mein hote hain, aap ka balance sirf us ka wada hai. Exchange doob jaye ya withdrawal band kar de, jaise 2022 mein FTX ne kiya, to paisa phans jata hai. Is liye sirf maroof platform istemal karein.
Har round trip ki qeemat hoti hai: trading fee, spread, withdrawal fee aur P2P mein khareed aur farokht ki qeemat ka farq. Misal: Rs 290 par USDT khareed kar Rs 286 par bechein aur do dafa 0.1% fee dein, to price hilay baghair Rs 100,000 mein se taqreeban Rs 1,576 chale gaye. Saal mein das dafa yeh karein to capital ka taqreeban 15% sirf fees mein chala jata hai.
P2P mein escrow coins ko bachata hai, aap ke bank account ko nahi. Jab aap bechte hain to aane wala paisa kisi fraud ka bhi ho sakta hai, aur account freeze ho sakta hai. Sirf apni bank app mein paisa dekh kar release karein, screenshot par kabhi nahi, aur payer ka naam buyer ke verified naam se milna chahiye. Har raseed sambhaal kar rakhein (Quran 2:282).
- PSX par shares CDC mein aap ke naam hote hain; exchange par coins exchange ke wallet mein, jab tak aap nikaal na lein.
- Har round trip mein fees, spread aur P2P ka farq price hilne se pehle hi kat jata hai.
- P2P mein sirf apni bank app dekh kar release karein, screenshot par kabhi nahi, aur doosre naam se aaya paisa qubool na karein.
Poora sabaq neeche English mein hai. Quiz English mein hai; asaan alfaaz mein.
Hira is a freelance designer in Faisalabad, paid in dollars. She wants to hold some PSX shares and some crypto. Buying USDT through P2P went smoothly, so a month later she sells 300 USDT the same way to pay rent. The buyer pays from an account in a different name, and she releases the coins anyway. A week later her bank freezes her account: the money came from a fraud victim who reported it. It takes her six weeks of visits and paperwork to show she was only a seller. Nobody had told her that selling on P2P carries a different risk from buying.
PSX: broker, CDC and settlement
On the Pakistan Stock Exchange you buy shares through a licensed broker. The shares are recorded in your name in a sub-account at the Central Depository Company (CDC), and trades settle on the next working day (T+1). Your broker places orders and holds your cash, but the shares sit at CDC under your name. Ask your broker how to receive CDC statements or alerts directly, so you can check your holdings without relying only on the broker's app.
Crypto exchanges: custody, KYC and fees
On a centralised crypto exchange, your coins sit in the exchange's own wallets. Your balance is its record of what it owes you. That is convenient for trading, but if an exchange fails or freezes withdrawals, as FTX did in 2022, customers can wait years or lose money. KYC, where you verify your ID, is required by serious exchanges; it reduces some fraud but puts your CNIC on file, so use only well-known platforms. Crypto rules in Pakistan have been changing, so check the current position and your bank's policy.
Every round trip also costs money before the price moves: a trading fee (often around 0.1% per spot trade), the spread between buying and selling prices, network fees when you withdraw, and, on P2P, the gap between the price you buy at and the price you sell at.
P2P in Pakistan: how it works and where it bites
In P2P you pay a stranger directly by bank transfer, Easypaisa or JazzCash, while the exchange holds the seller's coins in escrow until the seller confirms payment. The escrow protects the coins, not your bank account. When you sell, the rupees you receive might have been stolen from someone else, and banks can freeze accounts linked to a fraud report.
- Trade only with verified merchants who have long, high completion records.
- Confirm money in your own bank app, never from a screenshot.
- The payer's name must match the buyer's verified name.
- Never move the deal to WhatsApp or outside the escrow.
- Keep screenshots and receipts of every trade.
What one P2P round trip really costs
Suppose the dollar rate is Rs 281, P2P sellers ask Rs 290 per USDT (a 3.2% premium) and P2P buyers pay Rs 286. Hira buys with Rs 100,000: 100,000 / 290 = 344.83 USDT.
She buys BTC and sells it back at the same price, paying 0.1% each time: 344.83 x 0.999 x 0.999 = 344.14 USDT. She sells that on P2P: 344.14 x 286 = Rs 98,424.
Without any price move she has lost Rs 1,576, about 1.6%. Ten such round trips in a year would cost almost 15% of her capital. Fees are small per click and large per year.
Islamic trade rules care about possession (qabd): you should own and control what you buy before you sell it on. Many contemporary scholars accept constructive possession, such as shares recorded in your CDC account or coins credited to an account you can withdraw from; AAOIFI Shariah Standard 57 takes a similar approach for gold. When one currency is swapped for another, AAOIFI Shariah Standard 1 requires the exchange to be completed in the same session. Scholars differ on whether stablecoins count as currency, so some ask that P2P deals complete without delay. And the Quran asks us to write down our dealings (Quran 2:282): keep every receipt.
Education, not a fatwa. Where scholars differ, we say so. See what scholars say.
Releasing coins or sending money on the strength of a screenshot. Fake payment screenshots and 'my bank is slow, please release' are the most common P2P tricks in Pakistan. Just as costly is accepting payment from a name that does not match the buyer: if that money came from a scam victim, your own account can be frozen for weeks.
Open the USD/PKR desk and note today's rate. Then open the P2P page on the exchange you use, without trading, and write down the best price to buy USDT and the best price to sell it. Work out two numbers: the P2P premium over the dollar rate, and the gap between buying and selling as a % of the buying price. That gap is what every P2P round trip costs you.
Check USD/PKR →Key takeaways
- On PSX your shares sit in your name at CDC; on a crypto exchange your coins sit in the exchange's wallets until you withdraw them.
- Every round trip costs fees, spread and the P2P buy-sell gap before the price moves at all.
- In P2P, check money in your own bank app, never trust a screenshot, and never accept payment from a name that is not the buyer's.
Check yourself
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Barqish is an educational platform. Nothing here is financial advice or an instruction to buy or sell, and screening is not a fatwa. Spot ownership only: no leverage, no short selling. Updated 30 September 2026.