Egypt
Egypt maintains one of Africa's strictest formal prohibitions — Banking Law 194/2020 requires a CBE licence that has never been issued. Yet currency pressure has driven substantial informal stablecoin adoption, and the FRA's tokenised-securities workstream may become the first regulated on-ramp.
Restricted
Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) · Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA)
Banking Law 194/2020 Art. 206 prohibits issuing, trading or promoting cryptocurrencies without CBE licence — none granted to date.
AML Law 80/2002 (as amended); no crypto-specific AML guidance given the prohibition.
None — Not applicable while prohibition stands.
No formal guidance; gains theoretically taxable under general income rules.
CBE warnings; Dar al-Ifta fatwa discouraging crypto trading underpins public stance.
- —Large informal market entirely outside AML visibility
- —Prohibition pushes activity to P2P and offshore venues
- —Policy reversal risk in either direction
Article 206 prohibition on unlicensed crypto activity.
General AML baseline; applied by analogy to crypto flows.
Working group examines digital issuance under capital markets law.
Fresh warning amid rising USD-stablecoin usage against EGP pressure.
- 2018
Dar al-Ifta fatwa against crypto trading
- 2020
Banking Law 194 Art. 206 prohibition
- 2023
Stablecoin usage surges amid EGP devaluation
- 2026
FRA tokenised securities working group