In brief

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0.02%Reading
Lebanese citizens are turning to Bitcoin to avoid capital controls, according to Al Jazeera, in the wake of an economic meltdown. More people are now trading and moving cryptocurrency in the region.
Lebanon is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades. Local banks have begun to impose informal capital controls and increased restrictions on foreign currency movements, forcing people to withdraw their savings in Lebanese pounds at the official exchange rate—essentially reducing their savings by 40%.
Worse, citizens are now limited to making foreign currency withdrawals of between $50 and a few hundred dollars per month. Transfers out of the country are capped at $50,000 a year, and only for so-called "necessary matters."
Unsurprisingly, those looking for financial freedom have had to look elsewhere.
"Right now, the Lebanese are interested in escaping tight restrictions on cash withdrawals and transfers. They basically want financial freedom," Mahmoud Dgheim, who has been trading Bitcoin since 2015, told Al Jazeera. "If you want to go around the banking system, Bitcoin is a solution."
Protests throughout the world, in Hong Kong, Chile, France, the Middle East and elsewhere, are embracing the principles and products of cryptocurrency—in many cases without even knowing it. Today’s movements are made up of hundreds and thousands of protestors, groups of disparate individuals aligned around values and causes. The decentralized networks they’ve adopted—reliant on technology rather than leaders—could ensure their longevity. It could also permanently alter the geopolitical landscape...
Al Jazeera notes that Bitcoin never really gained any significant popularity in Lebanon. Central bank’s restrictions on purchasing digital assets with local credit cards, slow Internet and unreliable electricity severely impeded adoption—until now. Today, the value of cryptocurrency transactions reportedly reaches millions of dollars a month in Lebanon.
One Lebanese trader said that, while Bitcoin struggled to gain traction in the beginning, it’s now “going exponential.” Another noted that Bitcoin gave him supplementary income in the past but it has now become his primary income.
As Decrypt reported last December, five weeks of anti-government protests in Lebanon were fuelled by anger at corruption, and bank accounts were frozen. At the time, protestors reported that digital assets are rarely useful as currency since citizens were cut off from global exchange platforms. But with no other means, they’ve had to learn how to make do.
Tips
Have a news tip or inside information on a crypto, blockchain, or Web3 project? Email us at: tips@decrypt.co.
Equity analysts from investment firms Benchmark and Bernstein reiterated their buy ratings and lofty price targets for Strategy (MSTR), a day after the company said that it had recorded a loss of $5.9 billion on its Bitcoin holdings in its first quarter of 2025. The analysts highlighted Strategy’s continued strategy to purchase more Bitcoin, which has become its core business after the company pivoted from software development about five years ago. “While the number of companies that have soug...
Riot Platforms posted mixed earnings results for the first quarter as it took steps to mitigate the effects of mining industry headwinds on its business. The Bitcoin miner clocked $161.39 million in revenue in the three-month period ending on March 31, up 13% from the previous quarter, the firm said Thursday in a statement. That's roughly 2% above Wall Street’s expectations of $160.72 million. The company's total revenue was largely boosted by its Bitcoin mining income, which jumped 100% in th...
Fortnite maker Epic Games’ antitrust case against Apple benefited the crypto industry on Thursday, when the iPhone maker loosened restrictions on developers’ ability to offer apps in the U.S. that direct users to non-standard purchasing methods or digital collectibles. Apple updated its iOS App Store review guidelines after a U.S. District Judge found this week that the tech titan “willfully” violated a court injunction issued in 2021. Moving forward, the federal court prohibited Apple from coll...