Key Takeaways:
- Locals operating cryptocurrency exchanges in Herat reportedly shut their businesses down and were detained.
- In June, the central bank of Afghanistan, run by the Taliban, outlawed foreign exchange trading online.
Crypto has been in critical condition in Afghanistan. Following a recent prohibition on cryptocurrency trading, Afghan officials are reported to have shut down 16 unnamed cryptocurrency exchanges in the country’s western Herat province over the previous week.
According to local independent news source Ariana on Wednesday, the decision was made three months after Afghanistan outlawed cryptocurrency trading. Which cryptocurrency exchanges were impacted by the closures wasn’t specified.
Law enforcement shut down the platforms, and their employees were detained. According to Sayed Shah Sa’adat, chief of the counter-crime unit of the Herat police, this action was taken after the country’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, said in a letter that digital currency trading has “plenty of problems and is defrauding people.”
Da According to independent local media outlet Ariana News on Thursday, citing Sayed Shah Sa’adat, the nation’s central bank, Afghanistan Bank, noted in a letter that law enforcement “acted and arrested all the exchangers involved in the business and closed their shops” as a consequence of scams sparked by digital currency trading.
The Herat Money Exchangers’ Union and locals who support government regulation of digital currency trading because it is new and uncharted territory were quoted in the story.
According to the Herat Money Exchangers’ Union, the government should keep an eye on the trade of digital tokens since citizens are vulnerable to scams because they are unfamiliar with digital currency.
Shahram believes Digital money is a new phenomenon that is not used in Afghanistan. The process should be supervised by the government so that there will be no scams and people can make better investments.
If the government does not keep an eye on and stop digital currency activity, assets will leave Afghanistan. People lose money as a result of syndicate involvement and daily rate fluctuations.
According to Google Trends data, web searches for “bitcoin” and “crypto” had increased soon before the takeover. In Chainalysis‘ 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, which charts the popularity of digital assets worldwide, Afghanistan even made it into the top 20 nations.
