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.
🫠
Durgesh Mehta
I get both sides. People need money. But the Taliban has to keep order. Maybe there’s a middle way? Like licensed crypto hubs under religious oversight? Just thinking out loud
Sarah Roberge
Okay so let me get this straight… the same government that banned music, TV, and kite flying now says crypto is ‘gambling’? But they’re totally fine with warlords and corrupt officials stealing millions in aid? The hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.
Also I think they’re scared because crypto is decentralized and women can use it without a male guardian. That’s the real threat. Not ‘fraud.’
Also also-did anyone else notice they didn’t arrest the ISKP guys? No. They arrested the woman who sold her scarf to buy rice via USDT. Classic.
…I’m done.
😭
Jess Bothun-Berg
Let’s be brutally honest: this is a failure of Western policy. You sanctions a country into starvation, then you pat yourselves on the back for ‘enabling crypto’ as if it’s some noble act. It’s not. It’s a band-aid on a severed artery.
And now you’re blaming the Taliban for not letting people trade digital assets while the entire financial infrastructure you helped destroy remains in ruins?
It’s not ‘survival.’ It’s a symptom of a broken system you created.
And don’t even get me started on how these ‘remittances’ are laundered through Iranian exchanges. This isn’t humanitarianism-it’s financial chaos with a pretty hashtag.
Steve Savage
There’s something deeply spiritual about this. People, stripped of everything-banks, aid, dignity-still find a way to care for each other. They don’t need permission to love. They don’t need a license to feed their children.
Crypto didn’t create this moment. It just revealed it.
The Taliban can jail traders. They can seize wallets. But they can’t jail the idea that no one should starve because a bank is closed.
That’s the real revolution here. Not blockchain. Humanity.
And it’s still alive.
Joe B.
Let’s analyze the data. Chainalysis reports $962M in crypto transactions from July 2020–June 2021. But that’s 1.8% of Afghanistan’s estimated GDP at the time. And the vast majority of those were USDT stablecoin transfers-mostly remittances, yes, but also a significant portion routed through Iranian and Pakistani exchanges with known ties to Hizbullah and ISKP-linked wallets.
TRM Labs’ 2025 report shows 17 documented cases of terrorist-linked transfers in Afghanistan between 2022–2024, totaling $1.2M. That’s 0.12% of total crypto volume. But here’s the kicker: those $1.2M funded 37 attacks, including the Moscow bombing. Meanwhile, the $962M in ‘survival’ transfers? No audit trail. No KYC. No accountability.
So yes, most users are civilians. But the infrastructure they’re using is the same infrastructure that funds terrorism. And when you enable anonymous, unregulated networks in a failed state, you don’t get ‘humanitarian crypto’-you get a parallel financial system that no one controls.
And that’s not freedom. That’s anarchy. And anarchy always gets weaponized.
Rod Filoteo
Okay but what if the Taliban is right? What if this whole crypto thing is just a CIA psyop to get people hooked on digital money so they can track them later? I mean, every phone has GPS, every wallet has metadata, and the blockchain is PUBLIC. They’re not saving themselves-they’re handing over their entire lives to Big Tech and the NSA.
And don’t even get me started on how the US is funding this through NGOs. You think they care about Afghan women? Nah. They want to turn Afghanistan into a crypto testing ground. Then they’ll say ‘See? We helped!’ while quietly harvesting biometric data from every QR code scan.
They’re not helping. They’re harvesting.
And you’re all just sheep walking into the slaughterhouse with a crypto wallet in your hand.
Wake. Up.
Layla Hu
I can’t imagine living in a place where the only way to get food is through a phone. That’s not progress. That’s desperation.
Nora Colombie
Let me get this straight-Afghans are starving because the U.S. and NATO bombed their economy for 20 years, then froze their assets, and now we’re acting like the Taliban is the villain for banning the one thing that kept them alive?
That’s not moral. That’s performative outrage.
And don’t even mention ‘women’s empowerment’-this is the same regime that banned girls from school. You think they care about mothers getting USDT? They care about control. And you’re giving them a reason to double down.
Stop pretending this is about justice. It’s about guilt. You feel bad, so you cheer for crypto. But you didn’t lift a finger when it mattered.
Now you want a hashtag. Not change.
Greer Dauphin
So the Taliban bans crypto because it’s ‘gambling’… but lets private lenders charge 50% interest? And lets warlords run illegal mines? And lets their own commanders stash millions in Dubai?
Yeah. That’s not religion. That’s corruption with a robe.
Also-how many of these ‘arrested traders’ were women? Because I bet you a million USDT they were. And I bet you the wallets they ‘seized’ never showed up in any official ledger.
Classic. Punish the poor. Protect the powerful.
Also also-did anyone else notice the Taliban didn’t arrest anyone for selling gold or opium? Hmm.
😂
Bhoomika Agarwal
Crypto? In Afghanistan? Ha. First they ban music, then TV, now Bitcoin? Next they’ll ban breathing without a permit. This is the same regime that burned down schools. You think they care about your wallet? They care about your obedience.
Katherine Alva
There’s a quiet kind of heroism here. Not the kind with flags or speeches. The kind that happens in a dimly lit room, with a cracked phone screen, sending a few USDT to a sister in Kandahar.
The Taliban can ban the tool. But they can’t ban the love behind it.
That’s the part they don’t understand. You can jail a man for holding a wallet. But you can’t jail a mother’s will to feed her child.
And that’s why this won’t end with arrests.
It’ll end with resistance.
❤️
Nelia Mcquiston
It’s strange, isn’t it? We live in a world where a child in Kabul can receive money from their uncle in London through a blockchain… but can’t receive a visa to go see him.
Our technology is advanced. Our humanity is not.
The Taliban didn’t create this crisis. We did. And now we’re shocked when people use the tools we gave them to survive?
Maybe the real crime isn’t crypto.
It’s that we stopped caring long before the arrests began.
Mark Stoehr
They arrested traders but not the warlords who stole billions. Classic. The poor get jailed. The rich get passports. Same old story
Shari Heglin
The Taliban's prohibition of cryptocurrency is a legally coherent response to unregulated financial instruments operating outside state-sanctioned monetary systems. While humanitarian consequences are regrettable, the preservation of sovereign financial integrity remains a legitimate state objective.
Reggie Herbert
Let’s cut through the noise. This isn’t about ‘survival.’ It’s about the West using crypto as a Trojan horse to undermine Islamic governance. You think the Taliban doesn’t know that every USDT transaction is traceable? That every wallet is a data point?
And you’re celebrating this like it’s freedom? It’s surveillance with a blockchain.
Also-where’s the evidence that ‘ordinary people’ are using this? Not NGOs? Not diaspora remittances? Not Iranian shell companies?
And don’t even mention ISKP. You think the Taliban is blind? They’re not. They’re just tired of being demonized while the West funds the chaos.
It’s not crypto. It’s control. And you’re on the wrong side.
Murray Dejarnette
Y’all are acting like this is some kind of Robin Hood story. Newsflash: the Taliban is NOT the bank. They’re the government. And when you break their laws, you get arrested. That’s how societies work.
But oh no, the poor people can’t eat? Who let them starve? The U.S.? The UN? The World Bank? Yeah, they’re the real villains.
And now you’re blaming the Taliban for enforcing their own rules? That’s not justice. That’s emotional blackmail.
Get a grip. This isn’t a Netflix documentary. It’s real life. And real life has rules.
Also-someone tell me how many of these ‘arrested traders’ were actually women? Or is that just the story you want to believe?
Sarah Locke
To every mother in Kabul who sent crypto to feed her child: you are braver than any government.
To every trader who risked jail to keep a family alive: you are the real economy.
To every person who says ‘this isn’t about money’-you’re right. It’s about dignity.
They took our banks. They took our aid. They took our hope.
But they didn’t take our hands.
And as long as one phone can send one USDT… we’re still free.
✊
Mani Kumar
Afghanistan's crypto adoption is a symptom of institutional failure, not innovation. A society that relies on decentralized finance to survive has already lost its social contract. The Taliban's crackdown is not cruel-it is the inevitable restoration of order.
Paul McNair
That’s the thing no one talks about-when the Taliban arrests a trader, they don’t just take their phone. They take their identity. Their family’s future. Their child’s next meal.
And then they wonder why people still trade in secret.
It’s not about Bitcoin.
It’s about the fact that when the world looks away, people still find a way to love each other.
And that? That’s the one thing no law can kill.
Steve Savage
And that’s why the ban will fail.
Not because tech is stronger than tyranny.
But because love is.
They can jail a man. They can erase a wallet.
But they can’t unlearn the feeling of sending $5 to someone you love.
That’s not crypto.
That’s human.
And it’s already everywhere.
Katherine Alva
What’s haunting is that the Taliban knows this too.
They didn’t ban crypto because it’s dangerous.
They banned it because it’s powerful.
And power-real power-doesn’t need permission.
That’s why they’re so afraid.
Not of the blockchain.
Of the hearts behind it.