What the Law Actually Says: Algeria’s Cryptocurrency Ban Explained

En bref : Algeria enforces one of the world’s strictest cryptocurrency prohibitions. The 2018 Finance Law (No. 17-11) banned buying, selling, and holding crypto. In July 2025, Law No. 25-10 escalated the ban to a criminal offense under anti-money-laundering legislation—adding mining and promotion to the prohibition—with penalties of up to one year in prison and fines up to 1,000,000 DZD. The Bank of Algeria’s Instruction No. 06/2025 now requires banks to actively detect and block crypto-related transactions.

In much of the world, cryptocurrency regulation sits in a gray zone—some countries regulate it, others tax it, and many are still debating how to classify it. In Algeria, the situation is far less ambiguous. Cryptocurrency is illegal. And since July 2025, it is not just restricted—it is explicitly criminalized under Algeria’s anti-money-laundering framework, making activities such as trading, holding, mining, or even promoting crypto punishable by fines and prison time.

While global markets push deeper into Bitcoin ETFs, stablecoins, and institutional adoption, Algeria has chosen a very different path: a strict prohibition designed to prevent digital assets from entering the national financial system. Meanwhile, Algeria was placed on the FATF grey list in October 2024, adding international pressure to its financial compliance framework.

Understanding how the country arrived at this point requires looking at two key legal moments: the 2018 finance law that first banned cryptocurrencies, and a 2025 law that expanded the ban into a criminal offense.

The First Ban: Algeria’s 2018 Finance Law

Algeria first prohibited cryptocurrency through Finance Law No. 17-11 for 2018, published in the Official Journal of the Republic of Algeria No. 76, dated December 28, 2017. Article 117 of the law states:

“L’achat, la vente, l’utilisation et la détention de la monnaie dite virtuelle est interdite.”
(“The purchase, sale, use, and possession of so-called virtual currency is prohibited.”)

The law defines virtual currency as currency “used by internet users on the web, characterized by the absence of physical support such as coins, banknotes, payments by check or bank cards.” Notably, the original text does not explicitly reference central banks—it simply characterizes crypto by its lack of tangible form.

Official source: Journal Officiel No. 76/2017

At the time, Algeria joined a small group of countries that adopted an outright prohibition rather than a regulatory framework. Morocco had banned cryptocurrency transactions in 2017 through a joint statement from Bank Al-Maghrib, the Ministry of Economy, and the Office des Changes. Nepal’s central bank declared all Bitcoin transactions illegal the same year.

The reasoning across all three countries was similar: financial stability and anti-money-laundering concerns. Cryptocurrencies operate outside traditional banking oversight, and governments worried they could be used for:

• Capital flight outside official channels
• Illicit transfers and money laundering
• Tax evasion
• Unregulated cross-border payments

For a country like Algeria—with strict foreign-exchange controls governing the movement of currency—the government saw decentralized digital assets as a direct challenge to financial sovereignty.

However, Article 117 contained a critical weakness: it prescribed no specific penalties for violations, stating only that offenses would be “punished according to existing laws and regulations in force.” It also did not mention cryptocurrency mining, leaving that activity in legal limbo. These enforcement gaps persisted for seven years.

2025: Algeria Moves From Ban to Criminalization

On 24 July 2025, Algeria passed Law No. 25-10, published in Official Journal No. 48. The law amends Algeria’s foundational anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation—specifically Law No. 05-01 of 2005.

Official source: Journal Officiel No. 48/2025

This amendment did two important things. First, it introduced the legal concept of “virtual assets” (actifs virtuels) into Algerian financial crime law. Second, it directly linked cryptocurrency activities to the country’s AML/CFT enforcement apparatus.

The law defines virtual assets as:

“Valeurs numériques qui peuvent être échangées de manière digitale, transférées ou utilisées à des fins de paiement ou d’investissement.”
(“Digital representations of value that can be digitally traded, transferred, or used for payment or investment.”)

This definition aligns with international terminology used by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets global AML standards. Algeria is a member of MENAFATF (Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force), an FATF-style regional body. However, while the FATF definition is designed to create a regulatory framework for virtual assets, Algeria’s approach is the opposite: total prohibition.

What the 2025 Law Actually Prohibits

Article 6 bis of the amended law establishes a blanket prohibition on all operations linked to virtual assets. According to the official text, it is forbidden to:

• Issue virtual assets
• Buy or sell them
• Hold them
• Mine them (explicitly included for the first time)
• Trade or speculate on them
• Use them as payment or investment instruments
• Promote them (including advertising or content creation)
• Create or operate cryptocurrency exchange platforms

Official source: Journal Officiel No. 48/2025

This wording dramatically broadens the scope beyond the 2018 law. The earlier legislation focused mainly on purchase, sale, use, and possession. The 2025 amendment closes every gap: it adds mining (previously excluded), promotion and advertising (targeting influencers and content creators), and platform operations (targeting fintech entrepreneurs). The law also extends to offshore platforms accessible to Algerian residents.

Critically, the law contains no transitional provisions. There is no amnesty period and no legal pathway for existing crypto holders to divest their holdings within the Algerian system.

Penalties: Fines and Prison Time

Article 31 bis of the amended law establishes specific criminal penalties. Anyone who violates Article 6 bis faces:

• 2 months to 1 year of imprisonment
• Fines between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Algerian dinars (approximately USD 1,500 to USD 7,700)
• Or both penalties combined

Official source: Journal Officiel No. 48/2025

For context, the maximum fine of 1,000,000 DZD represents several months of average salary in Algeria, making it a significant financial penalty relative to local income levels. Penalties can be increased for repeat offenses and escalated further when violations are connected to organized crime, money laundering, or terrorist financing.

Banking Surveillance: The Central Bank’s Role

Legal bans alone rarely stop financial activity. Enforcement requires cooperation from the banking system.

On 12 November 2025, the Banking Commission (Commission Bancaire) issued Instruction No. 06/2025, formally titled guidelines for the “identification, blocking, and prohibition of operations linked to virtual assets.” The instruction requires all banks and financial institutions—including post offices—to implement systematic detection systems.

Source: Bank of Algeria — Guidelines

The instruction defines seven categories of suspicious operations that banks must monitor:

1. Transactions involving websites or exchange platforms using previously unidentified IP addresses
2. Transactions linked to dark web IP addresses
3. Client attempts to make payments to sites already flagged for virtual asset involvement
4. Multiple transfers in small amounts (a structuring indicator)
5. Repeated transfers from recently opened or dormant accounts
6. Multiple clients sending funds to identical sites with shared IP addresses without business justification
7. Transfers inconsistent with client profiles, or cash deposits followed by transfers suggesting fund conversion

Banks must also scan transaction data for cryptocurrency-related keywords (such as “bitcoin,” “crypto,” “USDT”) and refuse business relationships or payments suspected of being linked to virtual assets. All suspicious transactions must be reported to Algeria’s Financial Intelligence Unit immediately.

Financial institutions that fail to comply with these directives face penalties of their own.

Source: APS — Bank of Algeria Guidelines

Why Algeria Took This Approach

Algeria’s crypto policy cannot be understood without considering two intersecting pressures: domestic financial control and international compliance.

Domestic concerns: The Algerian economy operates under strict foreign-exchange controls, limiting the movement of currency outside the country. Algeria also has a large informal foreign-exchange market (the “square” market). Cryptocurrencies, by design, bypass both official and informal channels entirely. A user can move value internationally using a decentralized network without going through banks, the central bank, or government oversight.

For policymakers, this creates several risks:

• Capital flight — Digital assets could allow individuals to move wealth abroad outside official channels, undermining currency controls.
• Expansion of informal markets — Crypto could create a parallel digital economy beyond the reach of existing enforcement.
• Financial crime — Money laundering, terrorism financing, and fraud conducted through untraceable digital transactions.

International pressure: Algeria was placed on the FATF grey list (Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring) at the October 2024 plenary session, alongside Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, and Lebanon. This designation means Algeria committed to an action plan to address deficiencies in its AML/CFT framework—including improving risk-based supervision and enhancing suspicious transaction reporting. The 2025 crypto criminalization law and banking guidelines can be understood partly as Algeria demonstrating compliance progress to FATF evaluators.

Algeria has also partnered with the United States through the ICITAP program (International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program). Since early 2025, workshops organized by the Ministry of Justice and the US Embassy have brought together magistrates, Bank of Algeria experts, CTRF (Financial Intelligence Unit) analysts, and law enforcement officers—supervised by former FBI investigators and OSINT specialists—to train in cryptocurrency flow tracing and fraudulent transaction network analysis.

Crypto vs Blockchain: An Important Distinction

One common misconception is that banning cryptocurrency automatically means banning blockchain technology. That is not the case under Algerian law.

The laws cited above specifically target virtual assets and cryptocurrency transactions, not distributed ledger technology itself. Nothing prevents blockchain or DLT projects unrelated to trading. Blockchain systems can still potentially be used for:

• Supply-chain tracking
• Identity verification
• Document authentication
• Financial infrastructure modernization

More significantly, Algeria is actively exploring a state-controlled Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Monetary and Banking Law No. 23-09 (enacted 2023) provides the legal foundation:

• Article 2 stipulates that the national currency may take a digital form, to be called the “Algerian Digital Dinar”
• Article 4 grants the Digital Dinar the same legal tender status as physical currency—”legal and liberatory power without limit”

Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane announced the Digital Dinar initiative in late 2022 as part of Algeria’s payment system digitalization strategy. However, as of early 2026, the project remains in the research phase. The Bank of Algeria has not yet issued any implementing regulations governing the Digital Dinar’s technical architecture, issuance criteria, or operational framework.

The Digital Dinar differs fundamentally from private cryptocurrencies: it would be issued and controlled by the central bank, operating within the sovereign monetary system rather than on decentralized networks.

Source: Monetary and Banking Law No. 23-09 — Bank of Algeria

The Reality: A Ban Does Not Stop Usage

Despite the legal prohibition, Algeria ranks among the top cryptocurrency markets in the MENA region. Chainalysis placed Algeria 43rd globally and 7th in Africa in its 2024 crypto adoption index. Peer-to-peer trading persists through encrypted messaging groups, decentralized exchanges, and in-person cash-to-crypto transactions, particularly in Algiers and Oran.

USDT (Tether) has become the dominant asset, functioning as a “digital dollar” alternative. Users rely on stablecoins to preserve savings against dinar devaluation, reduce remittance costs, and access global financial markets.

However, under Algerian law, all of these activities remain criminal offenses regardless of how they are conducted. The legal framework focuses on the act itself—buying, holding, mining, or promoting virtual assets—not merely the use of regulated exchanges. Peer-to-peer transactions carry the same legal risk as exchange-based trading.

How Algeria Compares: Morocco and Nepal

Algeria, Morocco, and Nepal all banned cryptocurrency around 2017-2018. Their paths since then reveal three very different trajectories:

Morocco is actively reversing its ban. In November 2024, Bank Al-Maghrib governor Abdellatif Jouahri confirmed a draft law to regulate crypto-assets, developed with World Bank and IMF input. Bill 42.25 (unveiled late 2025) establishes a licensing framework for exchanges while maintaining a ban on crypto as payment. Approximately 6 million Moroccans (16% of the population) already hold crypto, and Morocco ranked 27th globally in the 2024 Chainalysis adoption index.

Nepal maintains its ban with active enforcement. The Nepal Rastra Bank expanded its prohibition to include mining in January 2022. Penalties are harsher than Algeria’s: up to 3 years imprisonment, fines of three times the transaction amount, and asset confiscation. Over 50 crypto-related arrests were reported in 2024-2025.

Algeria doubled down. Rather than moving toward regulation (like Morocco) or simply increasing enforcement (like Nepal), Algeria built an entirely new legal architecture—criminalizing crypto under AML law, adding mining and promotion to the ban, and deploying banking-level surveillance.

The Bottom Line

In 2026, Algeria maintains one of the most comprehensive cryptocurrency prohibitions in the world. Three legal pillars define the current framework:

1. Finance Law No. 17-11 (2018) — Article 117 banned buying, selling, using, and holding virtual currencies. No specific penalties. Mining excluded.
   Source: Journal Officiel No. 76/2017
2. Law No. 25-10 (July 2025) — Articles 6 bis and 31 bis expanded the ban to all virtual assets, added mining and promotion, and introduced criminal penalties of 2 months to 1 year imprisonment and 200,000–1,000,000 DZD fines.
   Source: Journal Officiel No. 48/2025
3. Banking Commission Instruction No. 06/2025 (November 2025) — Requires financial institutions to systematically detect, block, and report crypto-related transactions using seven categories of suspicious indicators.
   Source: Bank of Algeria — Guidelines

While many countries are moving toward regulated crypto markets or exploring digital currencies, Algeria’s regulators have sent a clear message: cryptocurrency has no legal place in Algeria’s financial system. Whether that prohibition can hold against a population that already ranks 43rd globally in crypto adoption remains an open question.

Sources & Further Reading

• Finance Law No. 17-11 for 2018 (Article 117) — Journal Officiel No. 76
• Law No. 25-10 (2025), AML/CFT Amendment — Journal Officiel No. 48
• Bank of Algeria — Virtual Asset Guidelines (Instruction No. 06/2025)
• APS — Bank of Algeria Defines Virtual Asset Identification and Prohibition Guidelines
• Monetary and Banking Law No. 23-09 — Bank of Algeria
• FATF — Algeria Country Page and Grey List (October 2024)
• MENAFATF — Mutual Evaluation Report of Algeria (2023)
• Chainalysis — MENA Crypto Adoption 2024
• FinCrime Central — Algeria Crypto Ban Compliance Analysis
• Law No. 25-10 Full Text — CNA.dz
• TSA Algérie — Seven Banking Operations Under Surveillance
• Algérie Éco — Bank of Algeria New Virtual Asset Guidelines
• Maghreb Émergent — Law 25-10, FATF, FBI: How Algeria Arms Its Justice Against Crypto