First Country to Ban Crypto: Who Did It and What Happened After

When it comes to first country to ban crypto, Tunisia became the first nation to outlaw all cryptocurrency transactions and holdings in 2018 under a decree from its Central Bank. Also known as crypto prohibition, this move wasn’t just symbolic—it carried prison sentences for violators and froze bank accounts tied to crypto activity. The Central Bank of Tunisia, the nation’s financial regulator with full authority over monetary policy and banking operations acted out of fear that decentralized money would undermine its control over the economy, fuel capital flight, and enable money laundering.

But here’s the twist: while regular citizens were forbidden from using Bitcoin or Ethereum, the same government quietly launched a blockchain sandbox, a controlled testing environment where state-backed institutions could experiment with distributed ledger technology without touching real crypto assets. This wasn’t hypocrisy—it was strategy. They wanted to study blockchain’s potential without letting the public access the risky, unregulated parts. Meanwhile, Tunisians didn’t stop using crypto. They just went underground. P2P trades over WhatsApp, cash swaps in markets, and foreign exchanges accessed via VPN became common. People weren’t chasing get-rich-quick schemes—they were protecting savings from inflation and bypassing a banking system that often locked them out.

The crypto ban, a regulatory tactic used by governments afraid of losing monetary control didn’t disappear after Tunisia. Countries like Egypt, Nigeria, and Bangladesh followed with similar restrictions. But none had the same mix of strict enforcement and quiet innovation. Tunisia’s approach shows you can ban crypto and still learn from it. The real lesson? You can’t stop people from using money they trust—especially when their own system fails them. Below, you’ll find real stories of how crypto users navigated these bans, what exchanges got shut down, and how regulators kept chasing shadows while the market moved on.