Crypto, Lebanese youth lifeline

For millions of Lebanese, the financial crisis that imploded in 2019 was more than an economic story, it was personal. It didn’t just bankrupt citizens, it forever reshaped an entire generation’s understanding of money. 

Young Lebanese who watched savings evaporate, bank accounts freeze, and the national currency lose more than 98% of its value over five years found themselves facing a reality their parents had never imagined: the institutions once trusted to safeguard the country’s prosperity became symbols of paralysis and ponzi schemes, and for many, the response was not despair, it was reinvention.

Crypto’s emergence in a collapsed economy

Long before global headlines flagged Bitcoin or Ethereum, Lebanon’s economic reality had already pushed many young people to question the very foundations of their financial lives. 

When banks imposed informal withdrawal limits and became unable to provide depositors with access to their own dollars, Lebanese households began seeking alternatives to preserve wealth and receive funds from abroad. 

In this context, digital assets like Bitcoin and stablecoins grew in popularity not as speculative bets but as practical mechanisms for storing value and cross-border transfers.

Multiple reports documenting the grassroots crypto scene in Lebanon describe peer-to-peer trading of stablecoins like Tether (USDT), typically in transactions worth hundreds to a few thousand U.S. dollars, taking place in informal networks and chat groups, effectively functioning as a parallel financial system for those squeezed out of formal banking.

Between warnings and legal silence

Legally, the status of cryptocurrency in Lebanon remains ambiguous, resting in what analysts call a regulatory “gray zone”. There is no modern law in Lebanon that formally recognizes cryptocurrencies as legal tender, nor any comprehensive framework governing their use, custody, or commercial applications. 

This absence of explicit legislation means that individuals are not criminalized for owning or trading crypto, but they also have no legal protections, defined rights, or regulated pathways to conduct transactions.

The heart of this uncertainty stems from policy decisions taken over the past decade. Beginning as early as 2013, the Banque du Liban (BDL) issued warnings (not bans) about the risks of digital currencies, discouraging the public from using them and explicitly alerting banks and financial institutions to stay away from crypto activity. 

In 2018, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) went further, publishing a regulation that prohibits licensed financial institutions from issuing, marketing, or trading cryptocurrencies, a prohibition designed to shield banks from volatility and unregulated markets but which effectively bars formal financial channels from participating in the crypto ecosystem.

Attempts by Lebanon’s financial authorities to regulate aspects of digital assets have been fragmented, and the Lebanese Parliament has not yet adopted a comprehensive digital asset law, even as everyday crypto use grows. 

In this environment, Lebanese crypto users operate in a space where formal financial institutions are essentially banned from participation, yet nothing in current law outright criminalizes individuals for trading or holding crypto, leaving adoption informal and subject to user risk.

Lebanon’s quiet CBDC experiment

While much of the conversation around digital money in Lebanon has focused on informal crypto adoption, the state has been quietly pursuing its own digital currency project. 

The Banque du Liban (BDL) began exploring a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as early as 2017, positioning the idea as part of a long-term modernization strategy. 

At the time, Lebanon still maintained a somewhat “functioning” banking system, and the country’s leadership saw a digital lira as a way to improve transparency and streamline payments.

The initiative accelerated in 2021, when former BDL Governor Riad Salameh announced that Lebanon would launch a CBDC in 2021, framing it as a response to the intensifying financial crisis. The CBDC, according to Salameh, would restore confidence in the financial system and help move the country towards a more digital and traceable monetary environment. That announcement made headlines, but the launch never materialized.

Behind the scenes, however, BDL continued working with global partners. In 2022, the central bank confirmed that it was collaborating with a company and other regional providers to test infrastructure for a digital Lebanese pound, largely as part of its effort to modernize cross-border payment rails and reduce reliance on cash.

By 2023–2024, BDL reiterated that the CBDC was still in development, but offered no public timeline. 

The central bank emphasized that the proposed digital currency would be designed to integrate: cashless retail payments, mobile wallets, and potentially cross-border remittance channels for the Lebanese diaspora, who send home billions of dollars annually.

Industry analysts note that a Lebanese CBDC could theoretically support greater financial inclusion, reduce the country’s dependence on physical dollars, and make money flows more transparent in an economy long plagued by informality. But the same analysts also caution that without structural reform of the banking sector, a digital currency cannot solve the underlying crisis.

What keeps the project stalled is not technology, it’s trust. A CBDC issued by a central bank that has already presided over one of the world’s worst financial collapses faces an uphill battle with public perception. Citizens who lost life savings in the banking freeze are definitely hesitant to embrace a government-issued digital wallet, no matter how advanced the system is.

Still, Lebanon’s CBDC efforts place it among more than 130 central banks worldwide currently studying or piloting national digital currencies. The global momentum, driven by countries from Nigeria to the European Union and MENA, reflects a broader shift toward state-backed digital finance.

Mining in Lebanon: A brief, unstable opportunity

Regarding mining, in the early stages of the crisis, certain areas in Lebanon briefly became hubs for cryptocurrency mining, the process of using computers to validate blockchain transactions and earn digital assets like Bitcoin as rewards. 

In the Chouf Mountains, areas fed by hydropower plants tied to Litani infrastructure, created a rare pocket of stable electricity in a country plagued by rolling blackouts, making mining technically viable in these limited zones.

At that time, anecdotal reports and local coverage described growing interest in mining among Lebanese seeking dollar-denominated income, driven by rising Bitcoin prices globally and the local currency’s collapse. However, reliable data on Lebanon’s regional share of mining activity does not exist.

By 2022–2023, this opportunity quickly evaporated. Two forces converged: the end of fuel subsidies, which sharply increased the cost of running generators, and persistent power shortages, which made consistent mining output prohibitively expensive. Even though official Lebanese law does not explicitly ban mining, authorities have intermittently cracked down on unauthorized farms that rely on subsidized electricity, recognizing the strain they place on already fragile infrastructure.

This episode makes clear a central truth: even digital money depends on physical realities. Without reliable electricity, infrastructure, and clear regulation, mining’s economics collapsed long before Bitcoin’s price peaked.

Stablecoins becoming core infrastructure

While mining flared and faded, stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to real-world currencies like the U.S. dollar, became foundational to how Lebanese manage money today. 

Globally, stablecoins have moved far beyond niche crypto use: transaction volumes soared to an astonishing $16 trillion in 2024, driven by their utility as bridges between fiat and digital currencies.

By June 2024, the stablecoin market’s total capitalization amounted to $150 billion, with early 2025 trends pointing to steady growth, reflecting widespread demand for dollar-pegged digital assets that combine the stability of fiat with the frictionless transferability of crypto.

Globally recognized stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC collectively dominate the landscape, with USDT alone accounting for roughly two-thirds of all stablecoin circulation by late 2025.

This scale highlights why stablecoins have become not just trading tools but core financial infrastructure, powering payments, remittances, and value transfer even beyond traditional banking networks.

In Lebanon, this global stablecoin momentum translated into a real, practical phenomenon. With banks unable to reliably facilitate dollar transfers, Lebanese users began holding and trading stablecoins to preserve value, receive remittances from the diaspora, and participate in international digital markets without dependence on unstable local systems.

Between Constraint and Innovation

In conclusion, Lebanon’s crypto story is not about dramatic price rallies or millionaire narratives. It is about adaptation and resilience in the face of corruption and systemic collapse. 

The boom and bust of local mining, the rise of stablecoins as indispensable financial tools, and the grassroots adoption among youth and diaspora all reflect a deeper truth: in environments where trust in institutions erodes, technology fills gaps that banks and governments leave behind.

As digital money continues to weave itself into global finance and with stablecoins processing trillions annually, the Lebanese experience stands as a case study in how ordinary people can repurpose cutting-edge technology for everyday survival.

The question is no longer whether crypto can change financial systems because, in a country like Lebanon, where people refuse to wait for permission, they’re already reshaping the system themselves.