Algeria Doubles Down: Full Crypto Ban Now Includes Ownership and Mining
North Africa's regulatory hammer drops—hard. Algeria just became the latest nation to outlaw all cryptocurrency activity, extending its 2018 trading ban to include personal ownership and mining operations. No phased rollout, no grandfather clauses—just a blanket kill switch.
The New Rules: Your Keys, Their Jail
The finance ministry's decree makes holding digital assets a criminal offense, putting Algeria in league with China's infamous 2021 crackdown. Mining operations? Shuttered immediately—no compensation for stranded ASICs.
Why Now? Petrodollars Meet Peer-to-Peer
Insiders whisper this move protects the dinar's artificial peg (and the elite's forex monopolies). After all, why let citizens hedge against inflation when the central bank can do it for them—poorly?
The Aftermath: Darknets and Disbelief
Local crypto communities are scrambling. Some vow to VPN through the blockade; others lament lost savings. Meanwhile, energy traders chuckle—Algeria just freed up 2.3% of its national power grid by axing miners.
Another win for financial 'protectionism.' Your move, Bitcoiners.
Algeria bucks the crypto trend
By expanding its ban on crypto, Algeria is bucking the worldwide trend of increasing liberalization, with even China announcing a shift in its formerly hardline policy earlier in July.
And for most commentators and experts, blanket bans on cryptocurrency activity are rarely effective.
In fact, this is evident in the case of Algeria itself, since despite banning crypto trading and ownership in January 2018, its cryptocurrency market has grown considerably since.
“Algeria is the 6th largest country in the Middle East and North Africa region by cryptocurrency value received, according to our 2024 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report,” Matthias Bauer-Langgartner, Head of Policy Europe at Chainalysis, told Decrypt.
According to Bauer-Langgartner, there is now a broad consensus among international financial organizations that broad-based bans are “very challenging to effectively implement,” as the FATF reported in a June update.
Rather than eliminating activity, he explained, "broad-based restrictions tend to drive the crypto ecosystem underground, fuelling gray markets where users lack safeguards and protections."
Ultimately, this makes it harder for law enforcement agencies to track and ringfence illicit activity, a conclusion also reached by Ari Redbord, the VP Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs at TRM Labs.
“It’s incredibly difficult for any single jurisdiction to fully enforce a ban when transactions can MOVE instantly across borders and platforms,” he told Decrypt. “We’ve seen this in countries like China, India, and Nigeria, which have implemented bans or heavy restrictions at various points, only to see crypto activity continue—often through underground markets or foreign platforms.”
For Redbord, it would be more productive to introduce regulation that grants trading platforms legitimacy in exchange for complying with standards of transparency.
He adds, “Instead of outright bans, the more effective approach is regulation that brings activity into the light, enabling law enforcement and regulators to protect consumers while still supporting innovation.”
