Humanitarian Crypto Calculator
In 2021, when Afghanistan's banking system collapsed, cryptocurrency became a critical lifeline for survival. Calculate how much digital money was needed to meet basic needs:
Data sources: Chainalysis ($962M transactions 2020-2021), World Bank (97% poverty rate), UNICEF (1M children at risk).
Note: This calculation assumes the daily need was met entirely through crypto.
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the country’s banking system collapsed. International sanctions froze billions in assets. Banks closed. ATMs ran dry. For millions of Afghans, there was no way to receive money from family abroad, pay for medicine, or buy food. Then, something unexpected happened: people turned to cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin, USDT, and other digital currencies became lifelines. Families in Kabul received remittances from relatives in the U.S. or Europe through peer-to-peer apps. Small businesses traded goods using QR codes instead of cash. Chainalysis reported that between July 2020 and June 2021, Afghanistan saw over $962 million in crypto transactions-enough to rank it 20th globally for grassroots adoption, ahead of countries like Japan and Germany. It wasn’t speculation. It was survival.
But by June 2022, the Taliban’s central bank issued a formal ban on all cryptocurrency trading. They called it illegal under Islamic law, claiming digital currencies were a form of gambling and fraud. The message was clear: if you trade crypto, you’re breaking the law.
The crackdown didn’t wait long. By August 2022, police in Herat-Afghanistan’s third-largest city and a major trade hub near Iran-shut down more than 20 crypto businesses. They arrested traders, seized equipment, and forced exchanges to close. Sayed Shah Sa’adat, head of Herat’s counter-crime unit, told reporters the raids were part of a nationwide effort to eliminate what he called “scams” that were hurting ordinary people.
But the people being arrested weren’t criminals. They were shopkeepers, teachers, and parents who used crypto to feed their children. One trader told Coinspeaker he made 1-2% profit per USDT transaction. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to cover rent and rice. After the ban, he couldn’t afford to eat. Another man said his brother in the U.S. sent him Bitcoin every week. Without it, his family would starve. “There’s no other way,” he said.
By May 2023, the penalties got worse. Eight crypto traders were locked up in Herat’s central prison for 28 days. Some were released on bail. Others faced up to six months behind bars. The Taliban didn’t just shut down businesses-they started jailing individuals. And still, the arrests kept coming. In September 2023, police in Herat closed 16 more crypto exchanges and arrested staff members. The crackdown wasn’t slowing down. It was escalating.
Here’s the cruel twist: the Taliban’s own actions made crypto necessary in the first place. International sanctions blocked Afghanistan’s access to SWIFT, froze its foreign reserves, and cut off foreign aid. The World Bank reported in April 2023 that 97% of Afghans now live below the poverty line. The economy was collapsing. Crypto wasn’t a luxury-it was the only functioning financial system left.
Some say the Taliban’s real fear isn’t fraud. It’s control. Cryptocurrency lets people move money without going through government banks or reporting transactions. That’s dangerous for any regime that wants to track every dollar. And with the Taliban facing isolation from the global financial system, crypto became a threat-not because it was illegal, but because it worked outside their authority.
There’s also a darker layer. TRM Labs’ 2025 Crypto Crime Report shows that Islamic State Khurasan Province (ISKP) has used crypto to fund attacks, including a March 2024 bombing in Moscow and a £16,000 transfer to a UK-based suspect in December 2024. The Taliban points to this as justification for the ban. But here’s the problem: the crackdown doesn’t target terrorists. It targets mothers, students, and small vendors. The few documented cases of terrorist-linked crypto use are tiny compared to the millions in daily remittances from ordinary Afghans.
Even the rules are unclear. Some detainees say their Bitcoin wallets were left untouched. Others claim their digital assets were seized. No official policy exists on asset confiscation. One trader told Crypto.news he was arrested, interrogated for hours, and released with his crypto still on his phone. Another said his entire wallet was wiped after his arrest. There’s no consistency. Just fear.
The humanitarian cost is staggering. UNICEF warned in 2023 that over one million Afghan children were at risk of severe malnutrition. Many of those families relied on crypto remittances. NGOs like Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) had even started paying 100,000 women weekly food stipends in USDT-because traditional aid couldn’t reach them. That program ended after the ban. No one replaced it.
Today, crypto activity in Afghanistan has dropped sharply. But it hasn’t disappeared. It’s gone underground. People now trade through encrypted apps, use cash-based P2P meetups, or route transactions through Iran and Pakistan. The risk is higher, but so is the need. The Taliban can shut down exchanges. They can arrest traders. But they can’t stop people from needing money.
What’s happening in Afghanistan isn’t just about crypto. It’s about what happens when a government cuts off its people from the global economy-and then punishes them for finding a way out. The ban wasn’t about protecting citizens. It was about control. And the cost? Millions of lives hanging in the balance.
There’s no sign the Taliban will lift the ban. The country remains isolated. The economy is in freefall. And yet, people still find ways to send and receive crypto-because sometimes, survival is more powerful than any law.
Paul McNair
It’s heartbreaking to see how survival becomes a crime. These aren’t hackers or criminals-they’re moms buying rice, teachers paying rent, kids getting medicine. Crypto didn’t create this crisis-it filled the void left by a world that abandoned them.
When your bank is frozen and your government won’t help, you don’t ask for permission to eat. You find a way. And now they’re locking up the people who found it?
This isn’t about religion. It’s about power. And the cost? Millions of lives reduced to statistics.
Mohamed Haybe
Crypto is western garbage used by traitors to bypass our laws. Taliban did right. No one needs Bitcoin when Allah provides. These people should be grateful for bread not digital coins
Marsha Enright
This is one of the most human stories I’ve read in years. I’m crying just thinking about the mother who got her USDT remittance and finally bought milk for her baby.
It’s not about crypto being ‘illegal’-it’s about a regime choosing control over compassion. The fact that they’re targeting women who were paid in crypto to feed their families? That’s not justice. That’s cruelty.
And the worst part? They’re not even stopping the real bad actors. Just the people trying to survive.
💔
Andrew Brady
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about humanitarianism. This is a covert operation by Western intelligence to destabilize the Taliban regime by enabling anonymous financial networks. Crypto is a Trojan horse. The U.S. and EU have been funding these P2P networks under the guise of ‘aid’-it’s regime change by another name.
And now they’re pretending to care about ‘mothers buying rice’? Please. The same governments that bombed Afghanistan for 20 years are now pretending to be saints because a few people used a blockchain.
Wake up. This is psychological warfare. And you’re falling for it.
Sharmishtha Sohoni
So the Taliban banned crypto because it’s gambling. But they allow interest-based loans through private lenders. That’s not hypocrisy. That’s just power.
Althea Gwen
Wow. Just… wow. 🤡
So the Taliban is the villain now? What about the 20 years of foreign occupation that destroyed their economy in the first place? Who let the banks collapse? Who froze the reserves?
And now we’re supposed to feel bad because people used Bitcoin to survive… the same Bitcoin that’s used by terrorists, scammers, and crypto bros in Miami?
Let’s not romanticize chaos. It’s still chaos.
🫠