There is no more subtle, no surer way to overthrow the existing foundations of society than to corrupt currency. In Egypt, Bitcoin (BTC) is theoretically outlawed. Banned since 2020, condemned by a fatwa since 2018, punishable by prison. And yet, the volumes exchanged peer-to-peer (individual to individual, without going through a centralized platform) have more than tripled. The coincidence is not a coincidence. It closely follows the fall of the Egyptian pound, falling below 52 per dollar in the spring before stabilizing a little above 50. A country that tracks Bitcoin with one hand pushes its citizens into its arms with the other.
Bitcoin in Egypt, the prison box before square one
Since 2020, article 206 of Banking Law No. 194 prohibits the issuance, exchange and promotion of cryptocurrencies on Egyptian soil. The text provides for prison and a fine which could rise to 10 million Egyptian pounds. On paper, the sanction is scary. In fact, it has melted with the currency it is supposed to protect. This 10 million was worth approximately $636,000 at the 2020 rate (15.7 pounds to the dollar). At the current rate, just $196,000.
Two years earlier, in 2018, the Egyptian religious authority Dar al-Ifta had already decided. Cryptocurrency trading, according to her, is haram. The Egyptian Central Bank never deviated from this line, until the arrest, in 2021, of a man from the governorate of Menoufia for promoting Bitcoin on social networks. Volumes on LocalBitcoins and Paxful fell the following week, with no causal link formally established. So much for the theory.
The Egyptian pound collapses, Bitcoin soars
In March 2026, the Egyptian pound lost more than 10% of its value in a single month. It then fell to 52.34 per dollar before rising as best it could towards 50.95 in September. Inflation, for its part, is not loosening the grip, with 14.9% over one year in July compared to 14.3% the previous month.
In fact, the Central Bank has maintained its key rate at 19% for four consecutive meetings. The International Monetary Fund is keeping an eye on the matter. Its seventh review, completed at the end of July, released an additional 1.8 billion dollars, bringing the total paid since the start of the program to nearly 7 billion.
Even the Suez Canal, usually the country's cash cow, no longer helps as much, with revenues falling from 10.2 billion dollars in 2023 to 4 billion in 2024 and a recovery which peaks at 4.67 billion in the 2025-2026 financial year. The Treasury is therefore looking for air. According to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, peer-to-peer Bitcoin volumes more than tripled after successive devaluations of the pound; the think tank does not specify the exact period or data set.
Peer-to-peer, the crack in the Egyptian wall
Why peer-to-peer specifically, and not a traditional platform? Because these direct exchanges between individuals, without a centralized intermediary, are much more difficult to spot for a regulator who has neither the means nor the desire to monitor each WhatsApp or Telegram transaction. The Central Bank can close a platform overnight. She can't close a private conversation. The phenomenon is nothing new.
The flight to Bitcoin was already observed well before the most recent devaluations, driven by years of exchange controls and dollar shortages. What has changed is the scale of the movement. A currency that loses 10% in a month makes you less inclined to save in pounds than to convert what you can into an asset that the State does not control. The same reflex crosses the entire region, from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon. The more local purchasing power collapses, the less the ban weighs against the fear of losing everything.
