Egypt's Central Bank bans all cryptocurrency trading under Law No. 194/2020, backed by religious and economic concerns. Enforcement is inconsistent, but the ban remains strong. Blockchain tech, however, is being adopted for government use.
Cryptocurrency Prohibition: Where It's Banned and Why It Still Persists
When governments ban cryptocurrency prohibition, the official blocking of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum by state authorities. Also known as crypto ban, it’s not just about control—it’s about replacing financial freedom with state-monitored systems. This isn’t theoretical. In Afghanistan, the Taliban arrested traders and shut down exchanges in 2022, yet families still risk jail to receive crypto remittances for food. In Qatar, Bitcoin is illegal, but tokenized real estate is allowed under strict rules. In Bangladesh, the central bank blocks crypto entirely, even as $30 billion in traditional remittances flow through mobile apps like bKash. These aren’t policy debates—they’re life-or-death choices for millions.
Why do countries do this? It’s rarely about security. It’s about control. Taliban crypto arrests, the detention of individuals for using or trading cryptocurrency under Taliban rule in Afghanistan aren’t about preventing fraud—they’re about cutting off any financial channel outside state oversight. Qatar crypto ban, the official prohibition of Bitcoin and Ethereum in Qatar, while permitting regulated tokenized assets shows how bans can be selective: they target decentralized money but allow digital assets that serve state-backed institutions. And in Bangladesh crypto ban, the legal restriction of cryptocurrency use in Bangladesh despite massive remittance needs, the ban exists even though millions rely on informal cross-border transfers. The pattern is clear: when crypto threatens centralized power, it gets banned. When it can be controlled or monetized, it gets licensed.
What’s missing from these bans? Real alternatives. In Afghanistan, crypto was the only way to get money to family when banks collapsed. In Bangladesh, remittance fees eat up 10% of every dollar sent—crypto could slash that to near zero. But governments don’t want efficiency—they want compliance. That’s why people still use crypto under the radar. They don’t care about the laws. They care about feeding their kids. The posts below show you exactly how these bans play out: who gets caught, how exchanges block users, what happens after an airdrop in a banned country, and why some projects survive even when the government says they shouldn’t. You’ll see the real cost of prohibition—not in headlines, but in wallets, Wi-Fi signals, and whispered transactions in the dark.
