Cryptocurrency in Egypt: approval required, approval never granted
In short. Article 206 of Egypt's Central Bank and Banking System Law of 2020 makes issuing, trading, promoting or operating a crypto platform conditional on prior approval from the central bank. On its face that is a licensing regime rather than a ban. The bank has granted approval to nobody since the law passed, which leaves the practical position identical to a prohibition, with penalties reaching ten million pounds and prison.
- STATUS
- Prohibited without approvalArticle 206 of Law 194 of 2020
- APPROVALS GRANTED
- Noneno entity since the law passed
- FINES
- 1m to 10m poundsalongside imprisonment
- WHAT IT COVERS
- Issuing, trading, promoting, operatinga platform dealing in crypto
- LATEST WARNING
- 2025the fourth, aimed at online advertising
- LEGAL TENDER
- Nothe pound stays the only legal money
A licensing regime with no licences
Egypt passed Law 194 of 2020 to govern the central bank and the banking system, and Article 206 handles digital assets.
The article sets a condition. You may not issue crypto, trade in it, promote it, or run a platform that deals in it without prior approval from the central bank. That reads as a process you could apply to.
No exchange, broker, custodian or issuer has received that approval in the years since the law took effect, and the central bank has given no indication of opening one. Egyptians live under the same restriction a prohibition would produce, arrived at through a permission nobody gets.
What Article 206 actually covers
Four activities sit inside the text: issuing digital assets, trading in them, promoting them, and operating a platform that deals in them.
Promotion is worth noticing, because it reaches beyond the trading floor. An influencer advertising a foreign exchange to an Egyptian audience falls inside the article as squarely as the exchange does.
Penalties run to imprisonment and fines between one million and ten million Egyptian pounds. The article addresses activities rather than the asset, so a private individual holding coins bought abroad occupies a position an Egyptian lawyer should assess.
The warnings keep coming
The central bank has issued repeated public warnings since before the law, and the religious authority added a ruling against crypto trading in 2018.
By 2025 the bank was on its fourth warning statement, prompted by a rise in online advertising aimed at Egyptians. The prohibition on promotion has not stopped that advertising, and Egyptians have kept buying through it.
What this means if you are moving there
The law reads as conditional and operates as closed, and people get into difficulty in the space between those two readings.
No Egyptian exchange holds approval and the central bank has opened no route to one. Promotion carries the same penalties as trading, so what you post matters as much as what you buy. The pound is the only money you can spend, and anyone arriving with holdings should get Egyptian advice on their own position instead of assuming that owning and trading are treated alike.
Allowed
- Hold Egyptian pounds, the only money with legal tender status here
- Read Article 206, which sets out the four activities requiring approval
- Take Egyptian legal advice on holdings acquired before you arrived
- Follow the central bank's statements, which is where any change would appear
Restricted
- Trading in crypto without prior central bank approval, which no entity has received
- Promoting crypto or a platform to an Egyptian audience, named in the same article
- Operating any platform that deals in digital assets
- Expecting an approval process to open, since the central bank has signalled none
How the rules took shape
The central bank warns the public against crypto, and the religious authority issues a ruling against trading.
Law 194 takes effect. Article 206 requires prior central bank approval to issue, trade, promote or operate a platform.
No entity receives approval, and the bank repeats its warnings.
A fourth warning statement follows a rise in online crypto advertising aimed at Egyptians.
The approval route stays written into the law and unused in practice.
Worth knowing
More than 3 million residents hold crypto even though transactions are banned, and in 2018 Dar al-Ifta issued a fatwa declaring bitcoin trading impermissible under Islamic law.
Common questions
Is crypto banned in Egypt?
Not in those words. Article 206 requires prior central bank approval to issue, trade, promote or operate a platform, and the bank has granted approval to nobody, so the effect matches a ban.
What are the penalties?
Imprisonment alongside fines of one million to ten million Egyptian pounds.
Does promoting crypto count?
Yes. Promotion sits in Article 206 next to trading and operating a platform, which catches advertising aimed at Egyptian audiences.
Can any exchange operate legally?
None does. No exchange, broker, custodian or issuer has received the approval the article requires.
What about coins I already hold?
The article addresses activities rather than the asset itself, so put your own position to an Egyptian lawyer before relying on any general answer.
Sources
Other countries
Updated 21.08.2026 · this is reference material, not investment or tax advice