On the Atlantic coast of North Africa, Morocco is staging a unique financial experiment. Once home to the world's strictest cryptocurrency ban, it is now also the country with the highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in North Africa.
When the official iron gates are tightly shut, the doors of the public have swung wide open. From office buildings in Casablanca to markets in Marrakech, digital assets are becoming an invisible weapon for millions of Moroccans to combat inflation and break through foreign exchange controls. As regulatory legislation loosens by 2025, it is necessary to reassess this blue ocean with immense potential.
(The author personally traveled to Morocco this month, gathering firsthand information through casual conversations with passersby and shop owners on the streets of Casablanca, Marrakech, Fez, Chefchaouen, and other locations.)
If we only look at the legal texts, Morocco seems like a desert for cryptocurrencies. As early as 2017, the Moroccan Foreign Exchange Office (Office des Changes) and the central bank jointly issued a notice explicitly prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies for transactions, with violators facing penalties for breaching foreign exchange management regulations.
However, the data tells a completely different story.
According to the "Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index" report released by blockchain data analysis company Chainalysis, Morocco has consistently ranked first in North Africa and among the top globally over the past few years. Particularly during the period from 2022 to 2024, despite being in a bear market, Morocco's ranking remained strong.
Even more astonishing data comes from the ownership statistics. Estimates from TripleA and several local fintech institutions suggest that the proportion of cryptocurrency holders in Morocco is approaching 10%-15% of the total population. This means that in a country with a population of about 37 million, millions of people have already engaged with or are in contact with crypto assets in some form.
This is not just a game for the wealthy. In Morocco, the popularity of cryptocurrencies exhibits strong "grassroots" and "youthful" characteristics. This vast user base has naturally emerged in a context where there are no formal exchanges, no banking channels for deposits and withdrawals, and even legal risks.
What market logic lies behind this phenomenon of "the more you ban, the more it thrives"? To understand the heat of the Moroccan market, one must first grasp Morocco's financial pain points.
Morocco implements strict foreign exchange controls. The Moroccan dirham (MAD) is a currency that is not fully convertible. For ordinary citizens, transferring large sums of money overseas or receiving small commercial payments from abroad involves cumbersome processes and strict limits on amounts.
This creates a genuine demand scenario for cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins (like USDT).
Morocco has a large pool of young talent proficient in French and English, actively working on global freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr in programming, design, and translation. For these young people, receiving overseas remittances through traditional banks (SWIFT) is not only time-consuming (usually taking 3-5 business days) but also incurs high fees, and funds may even be frozen by banks due to source issues.
Thus, USDT has become the best alternative. In Morocco's tech community and social media groups, "P2P trading" (peer-to-peer trading) is extremely active. Freelancers receive USDT and then exchange it for dirhams through platforms like Binance P2P within minutes, transferring it to local bank accounts or directly exchanging it for cash offline. This entire process completely bypasses the various restrictions of the SWIFT system, becoming an important infrastructure for Morocco's gig economy.
In addition to receiving payments, making payments is also a significant challenge. Many Moroccan merchants engaged in cross-border e-commerce (such as importing small goods from China) find that applying for foreign exchange quotas through banks to pay suppliers is so slow that it may delay business opportunities.
Cryptocurrencies offer a possibility for "instant settlement." Although this practice exists in a gray area, using cryptocurrencies to settle part of the payments has become an open secret in the business district of Casablanca.
Real Case: "Airdrop Aid" in the Earthquake
If foreign exchange controls are a long-term driving force, then the major earthquake in 2023 served as a "stress test" that allowed society to see the practicality of cryptocurrencies.
In September 2023, a strong earthquake struck the Al Haouz region of Morocco, causing severe casualties and property damage. During the critical rescue period following the disaster, traditional bank branches were closed, ATMs lost power or were emptied of cash, and disaster victims urgently needed funds to purchase supplies.
At this moment, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced an airdrop to Moroccan users.
This was not a fictional marketing gimmick, but a real occurrence:
- Binance identified the most severely affected users in the Marrakech-Safi region through user identity verification (KYC) and address recognition.
- It directly airdropped $100 worth of BNB (Binance Coin) into these users' accounts.
- For active Moroccan users not in the epicenter, smaller amounts of tokens were also airdropped.
- The total donation amount reached $3 million.
While this funding could not rebuild homes, at that time, it showcased a core advantage of cryptocurrencies: borderless, no intermediaries, and instant arrival. Many users quickly converted these tokens into cash through P2P channels to purchase urgently needed tents and food.
This event had a profound impact on the Moroccan public. It made many ordinary people, who were originally skeptical about "virtual currencies," realize that this is not just a speculative tool but a value transfer network that can operate in extreme environments.
Standing in 2025, the Moroccan market is undergoing a qualitative change.
With the Bank Al-Maghrib officially drafting and submitting a regulatory bill for crypto assets, this North African country is shifting from "total prohibition" to "embracing regulation."
What does this mean for overseas enterprises and investors?
- Opening of compliant pathways: As the bill progresses, exchange licenses and custody service licenses will become scarce resources. Those who can establish themselves first in the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) will be able to tap into the millions of users who have already been educated by the market.
- Explosion of payment scenarios: Morocco has a very high mobile phone penetration rate. Once compliance thresholds are lowered, mobile payment and remittance applications based on stablecoins will experience explosive growth, directly challenging traditional remittance companies (like Western Union).
- Talent dividend: Morocco has one of the best reserves of engineers in North Africa. The cost of Web3 developers here is much lower than in Europe and the U.S., yet their technical capabilities are not inferior.
Morocco is not the next Dubai, nor the next Singapore. It has a unique North African imprint: a young population structure, strong cross-border payment demand, and an awakening regulatory awareness. The 6 million cryptocurrency users here are not created by advertising but are driven by real-life needs. This market, based on genuine pain points, often has more vitality than purely speculative markets.
For Web3 practitioners, do not just focus on Silicon Valley and Hong Kong. Between the deserts and oceans of North Africa, this undervalued piece of the puzzle in Morocco may be the missing corner in the global landscape.
(Note: The data mentioned in this article references the Chainalysis 2022-2024 annual report, TripleA global adoption rate data, and public reports from Moroccan local media Hespress regarding earthquake aid in 2023.)
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
