Taliban closes 16 cryptocurrency exchanges in Afghanistan, declares war on cryptocurrency

The Central Bank of Afghanistan has stated that digital currency trading should be stopped. The Taliban has declared cryptocurrency «illegal in Islam» and warned that anyone involved in the purchase or sale of digital assets will be held accountable. At least 16 cryptocurrency exchanges were closed in Herat last week.

«Da Afghanistan’s Bank (the central bank) believes that digital currency trading causes a lot of problems and deceives people. We have taken action and arrested all the exchangers involved in the business and closed their outlets,» said Saeed Shah Saadat, head of the Herat police’s crime prevention department.

Since the Taliban returned to power, the economic collapse has pushed many Afghans to turn to online trading in foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies. People did this in order to preserve their savings. The overwhelming majority of Afghans express a desire to keep their funds as far away from the Taliban as possible so that the terrorist government cannot dispose of them at its discretion.

However, there are those who support the Taliban’s initiative:
«Digital currency is a new phenomenon that is not used in Afghanistan, so the government should monitor the circulation of finances in the country so that there is no fraud and people can invest in something decent,» a resident of Herat comments.

Interestingly, Afghanistan ranks 20th among the countries where people most often search for information about cryptocurrencies in Google Trends. The most used search phrases are «bitcoin» and «cryptocurrency».