Updated list of countries that are not friends to Bitcoin.

[Rruchi man]

While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are being accepted by some countries as a legal tender, and some other countries ignoring it and not having any serious rules prohibiting its citizens from venturing into the prospects of crypto, some other countries of the world still have strong policies and laws prohibiting and banning it.

Here's a list of some countries with some strong policies and laws against crypto.

(1) China - Since 2017, there has been a ban on all domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.

(2) Russia - Since Jan 2021, the Russian government issued a new statement stating that it's citizens can own and trade with crypto, however, they will not be allowed to use it as a legal tender for goods or services  within the country.

(3) Iran - Since 2018, the Iranian authorities issud a law prohibiting financial institutions from dealing on and with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.

(4) Morocco - The Moroccan authorities forbids its citizens from using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for transaction in the country.

(5) Egypt – since 2018, “, the  legislators in Egypt, issued a total ban against bitcoin and cryptocurrency and completely prohibited its use.

(6) Nigeria - Most recently, this country joined the list. The government of the country has issued a warning to financial institutions to stop activities with crypto exchanges and also threatens to arrest individuals who try to use their bank accounts to transact with crypto exchanges.

(7) Colombia - There is a order in Colombia by the government to financial institutions not to work with individuals or companies that use bitcoin and other related cryptocurrencies.

Others countries on the list are; Cambodia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Nepal etc
(Feel free to add your own)

Do you see this list getting shorter soon?

[Jawhead999]

AFAIK China only ban ICO and shutdown Bitcoin mining, but people can still holding Bitcoin [1]

Iran is allowing Bitcoin mining and had Bitcoin ATMs,  so it means Bitcoin is legal on Iran [2]

Morocco and Egypt ban Bitcoin due to religion (most of them is muslim) but I believe in the future they will allow Bitcoin, since many countries with majority of muslim (e.g. Pakistan, iran, etc) are legal now.

[1] https://www.mondaq.com/china/fin-tech/944330/regulation-of-cryptocurrency-in-china
[2] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nasdaq.com/articles/is-iran-becoming-a-bitcoin-nation-2020-11-04%3famp

[Lorence.xD]

AFAIK China only ban ICO and shutdown Bitcoin mining, but people can still holding Bitcoin [1]

China has the biggest bitcoin mine in the world, never thought that they were going to shut it down.

Iran is allowing Bitcoin mining and had Bitcoin ATMs,  so it means Bitcoin is legal on Iran [2]

Morocco and Egypt ban Bitcoin due to religion (most of them is muslim) but I believe in the future they will allow Bitcoin, since many countries with majority of muslim (e.g. Pakistan, iran, etc) are legal now.

Hopefully we can see them lifting the ban because I do not see any problems that might conflict with their faith, knowing that most of the countries with Muslim faith are already accepting bitcoin. Morocco is a US friendly country so I think that they will have no problem accepting bitcoin in their system or any foreign system for that fact.

[mariayaz]

I am from Pakistan and its very easy to trade buy and sell BTC in my country now since 2 years. I believe this list will get shorter as when digital currency take over, other countries who banned crypto will have to legalize it.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Still hard to stop bitcoin's growth though, maybe some countries have issued a total blanket ban, but I'm sure some of their population will just go underground to go and have BTC. So it doesn't matter if the list grow or not. What's important is that bitcoin and the rest of crypto market is now the most sought asset by anyone and governments cannot stop that. And just imagine if bitcoin is treated a reserved asset, those government that are anti-bitcoin will be left out in the closest while the rest of the world is moving digital.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Do you see this list getting shorter soon?

For sure it will. But other list - "bitcoin extreamly restricted" will grow. Countries where you will be able to hold BTC only on registered address, transfer it only to other registered address or exchange licenced in given country.

Nigeria will not hold bitcoin ban. Its just short term.

[Poker Player]

With Paypal, Tesla, Mastercard and others in the crypto world, plus those to come, I believe that little by little, Bitcoin will be clearly legal almost everywhere in the world. Another thing is that it will be extremely regulated and the anonymous part will be less and less.

[Xavofat]

some other countries of the world still have strong policies and laws prohibiting and banning it.

Bitcoin is highly resistant to censorship.  It is near-impossible for any country's attempt to ban it to have a major effect.  For their censorship to have a major effect they would have to:

1.  Attempt to restrict P2P exchanges like LocalBitcoins (which only highly oppressive regimes like China are capable of)
2.  Trace Bitcoin transactions as well as they possibly can in an attempt to catch out anyone using Bitcoin.

Realistically, people are going to use Bitcoin semi-anonymously regardless of what bans are in place.  In China, BITMAIN is producing thousands of ASICs and contributing to the economy.  Countries will only restrict Bitcoin as far as they believe it is practical and will prevent crime, which is not very far.

[Lucius]

Some countries are extremely aggressive when it comes to protecting national currencies and see BTC as competition that needs to be suppressed in any way. Some other countries just want to protect their citizens from all possible scams that have become very common - because people do not want their government to interfere in such investments, but when they become victims of scams they seek help from state institutions.

A random look at the list set by the OP shows that more or less these countries are not very developed in terms of education, human rights and freedoms - so how do you expect them to accept something over which they have no complete control.

I don't expect that list to be shortened, because that would mean that most countries in the world think the same - and the world has never agreed and united on anything, so it won't on whether Bitcoin is good or bad.

[tranthidung]

AFAIK China only ban ICO and shutdown Bitcoin mining, but people can still holding Bitcoin [1]

In any nation, over the globe, you are free to hold your bitcoin in your bitcoin non-custodial wallet. Government don't touch you and put you into jail if you did not make any crime to get your bitcoin.

Bitcoin selling/ exchanging is different and it is the most common restriction from government. They only do restrictions to make locals

• Fear of bitcoin
• Fear of pressure and law regulations from governments that can put them into prisons.
• Accept CBDC more than bitcoin or cryptocurrency

[aoluain]

AFAIK China only ban ICO and shutdown Bitcoin mining, but people can still holding Bitcoin [1]

China has the biggest bitcoin mine in the world, never thought that they were going to shut it down.

Iran is allowing Bitcoin mining and had Bitcoin ATMs,  so it means Bitcoin is legal on Iran [2]

Morocco and Egypt ban Bitcoin due to religion (most of them is muslim) but I believe in the future they will allow Bitcoin, since many countries with majority of muslim (e.g. Pakistan, iran, etc) are legal now.

Hopefully we can see them lifting the ban because I do not see any problems that might conflict with their faith, knowing that most of the countries with Muslim faith are already accepting bitcoin. Morocco is a US friendly country so I think that they will have no problem accepting bitcoin in their system or any foreign system for that fact.

This Coindesk article from last month definitely reports that Irans attitude to mining
is thawing but with mixed approaches. They are definitely seeing the benefits of a decentralised
asset as a means of side-stepping sanctions and creating revenue.

https://www.coindesk.com/inside-irans-onslaught-on-bitcoin-mining

[adzino]

Here's a list of some countries with some strong policies and laws against crypto.

(1) China - Since 2017, there has been a ban on all domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.

Not surprised. What else can you expect from a country that shamelessly operates as totalitarianism and has imbued with personality cultism?

(2) Russia - Since Jan 2021, the Russian government issued a new statement stating that it's citizens can own and trade with crypto, however, they will not be allowed to use it as a legal tender for goods or services  within the country.

What's wrong over here? In general, most of the countries never declared bitcoin or any crypto currencies as a legal tender. I think only few (maybe?) selected countries consider bitcoin as a legal tender.

(3) Iran - Since 2018, the Iranian authorities issud a law prohibiting financial institutions from dealing on and with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.

So can their people do p2p trading? Or is that banned too?

(6) Nigeria - Most recently, this country joined the list. The government of the country has issued a warning to financial institutions to stop activities with crypto exchanges and also threatens to arrest individuals who try to use their bank accounts to transact with crypto exchanges.

Heard about this. Quite surprising to be honest. I remember reading somewhere that Nigeria had a huge community of bitcoin users. I wonder why the government put a ban all of a sudden.

(7) Colombia - There is a order in Colombia by the government to financial institutions not to work with individuals or companies that use bitcoin and other related cryptocurrencies.

Others countries on the list are; Cambodia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Nepal etc
(Feel free to add your own)

At least the list isn't that big. What I have noticed is that countries that aren't politcally stable (or act like they are polictically stable) are the ones that had banned bitcoin. Wouldn't be surprised if it had to do something with existing "corruptions".

[k@suy]

I don't know if you are correct with China but I think it is not totally prohibited, I have some friends who invested and using bitcoin and other coins like ETH and XRP , they even have a large number of that in their wallet, and take not Binance and Huobi are top exchanges who are based in China, maybe there will be some restrictions in that country but they are not totally agains or not friends to bitcoin.

[notblox1]

India should be added on this list because they are planning to have total ban for cryptocurrencies soon similar like Nigeria, unless something changes in last moment.
Their neighbor Pakistan is opposite from them as usual and they are even using government funds to mine bitcoin, and long term list of friendly countries will grow.

[3meek]

As far as I know in Iran bitcoin mining is on the state level... Iran is using bitcoin to circumvent U.S. sanctions... Here is one of the articles that says the central bank should buy bitcoins from miners... I don't know how much credence can be given to this, but there has been talk about it for over a year...

[sddfsdfsdfsdfsdf]

Some countries are extremely aggressive when it comes to protecting national currencies and see BTC as competition that needs to be suppressed in any way. Some other countries just want to protect their citizens from all possible scams that have become very common - because people do not want their government to interfere in such investments, but when they become victims of scams they seek help from state institutions.

[milani]

Yes, not so long ago Nigeria had been included to such kind of list, and it is really the situation there is unsuitable for crypto users even to mine, because you can not use your crypto assets, it is a pity. And hope this strict decision and regulation will change very soon. In my opinion this list may become longer, this is always the case. But nowadays we see such a tendency like famous persons and influential organizations started promote Bitcoin, invest into BTC or accept it as the means of payment. So I hope that such a positive trend will shorten the list of countries that is not friendly to Bitcoin and crypto.

[BIT-BENDER]

(6) Nigeria - Most recently, this country joined the list. The government of the country has issued a warning to financial institutions to stop activities with crypto exchanges and also threatens to arrest individuals who try to use their bank accounts to transact with crypto exchanges.

About the arrest of people transacting Bitcoin in Nigeria, the government hasn't made any arrest yet, and account freezing of accounts used to transact Bitcoin has just been an online news, but the authenticity is that there has been a ban on crypto-currency in Nigeria, crypto-currency has made many youth and elderly self-employed in Nigeria but the great reality is Bitcoin can not be truncated in Nigeria.

[kryptqnick]

It's not all black and white. China is quite a hostile place, but crypto mining is still concentrated there. As for Russia, it's cool that trading is allowed, and not recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender is a very typical policy for regulating cryptocurrencies. As for Nigeria, I hope this will be overwritten soon because Bitcoin seems to be quite important there.
To the list of unstable countries I'd also add India who keeps introducing and removing the ban of cryptos.
In many countries Bitcoin and cryptos in general remain in the gray area when they're neither legal nor illegal, so these countries could also be added to the list (especially since Russia is there), but I think that this lack is regulations is actually not that bad for the community of crypto users.

[Little Mouse]

In my country, which you have listed already (Bangladesh), if anyone found to be an user of cryptocurrency, will be punished to 10 years of prison and with some fine too.
That's stupid. Bangladesh govt is blaming crypto and not legalizing it with an argument that money laundering will increase. The reality is the rate of money laundering is very high in our country and with cryptocurrency, it can be reduced actually.