Map (color-coded) of countries that banned crypto

Written by Ricky Nave in Crypto Law & Regulation

As of June 2022:

  • The EU failed to pass a proposed ban on proof-of-work crypto mining (e.g. Bitcoin mining)
  • Russia decided against banning crypto or crypto mining (possibly motivated by the sanction-bypassing ability of public blockchains while the Ukraine war is ongoing)
  • India decided against banning crypto (deciding instead to impose a hefty tax on both net income and transactions related to crypto)

Neverthless, many countries have imposed bans or significant legal restrictions on crypto ownership, transactions, mining, and/or the ability of crypto companies to interact with banks. Here’s a map showing the current state of which countries have imposed some level of ban or restriction on crypto:

Color-coded map of countries that banned or restricted the use of cryptocurrencies

List of Countries with Bans or Restrictions

  • Algeria
  • Bangladesh
  • Bolivia
  • Burundi
  • China
  • Ecuador
  • Indonesia (religious law, but criminally enforced in some areas)
  • Iraq
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Morocco
  • Namibia
  • Nepal
  • Tunisia
  • Turkey
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vietnam
  • Benin
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Burkina Faso
  • Cameroon
  • Chad
  • Congo
  • Côte d’Ivoire
  • Egypt
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Gabon
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Iran
  • Jordan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kuwait
  • Lebanon
  • Libya
  • Mali
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Senegal
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Qatar
  • Zimbabwe
  • Central African Republic
  • Turkmenistan
  • Tajikistan

References

Crypto laws & regulations have been changing at lightning speed across the globe during the past two years, which means each of the references below is no longer accurate. However, they provide a useful starting point and link to other resources that you can use to do your own research if you need to find the current legal situation in a particular country.

[1] https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llglrd/2021687419/2021687419.pdf

[2] https://proeliumlaw.com/cryptocurrency-regulation-tracker/

Ricky Nave

In college, Ricky studied physics & math, won a prestigious research competition hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, started several small businesses including an energy chewing gum business and a computer repair business, and graduated with a thesis in algebraic topology. After graduating, Ricky attended grad school at Duke University in the mathematics PhD program where he worked on quantum algorithms & non-Euclidean geometry models for flexible proteins. He also worked in cybersecurity at Los Alamos during this time before eventually dropping out of grad school to join a startup working on formal semantic modeling for legal documents. Finally, he left that startup to start his own in the finance & crypto space. Now, he helps entrepreneurs pay less capital gains tax.

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