Is crypto legal in Algeria? Regulation & rules (2026)

The Banque d'Algérie's Banking Commission published binding guidelines directing all financial institutions to deploy electronic surveillance systems flagging keywords such as 'Bitcoin' and 'Ethereum', detect mixer and anonymous-wallet activity, and immediately report suspicious virtual-asset transactions to the financial intelligence unit (CTRF). This circular operationalized Law 25-10 across the supervised banking sector, closing the implementation gap between the statutory ban and actual enforcement.

Algeria enacted Law No. 25-10, amending the AML/CFT framework by adding Article 6 bis (blanket ban on issuance, purchase, sale, possession, use, promotion, exchange-platform operation, and mining of any digital asset) and Article 31 bis (criminal penalties: 2 months to 1 year imprisonment and fines of 200,000–1,000,000 DZD, approx. USD 1,540–7,700). This is the most sweeping anti-crypto legislation in Algerian history, explicitly criminalizing passive holders and content promoters alongside active traders.

The FATF's June 2025 plenary kept Algeria on its grey list, noting the country had deferred its progress report. Sustained grey-list pressure — coming just six weeks before Law 25-10 was signed — is widely cited as the immediate catalyst for Algeria's decision to criminalize crypto activity in order to demonstrate AML/CFT compliance.

At its October 2024 plenary the FATF formally added Algeria — alongside Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, and Lebanon — to its grey list, citing deficiencies in risk-based supervision, beneficial-ownership transparency, and AML/CFT effectiveness. Algeria made a high-level political commitment to an action plan. The grey-listing directly drove subsequent legislative measures targeting unregulated financial instruments, including digital assets.

FATF's first follow-up report on Algeria's 2023 mutual evaluation upgraded six recommendations — moving Recommendation 12 from non-compliant to partially compliant and Recommendations 14, 21, 26, 27, and 28 to largely compliant — acknowledging incremental reform. Persistent systemic gaps nonetheless led to the October 2024 grey-listing.

The MENAFATF adopted Algeria's Mutual Evaluation Report, finding only 2 of 40 FATF Recommendations fully compliant and 9 largely compliant, exposing significant technical and effectiveness gaps in its AML/CFT framework. The report flagged risks from unregulated virtual-asset use and set the reform agenda that culminated in the 2024 grey-listing and 2025 crypto criminalization.

Algeria's 2020 complementary finance law (Law No. 20-07, Official Gazette No. 33) reiterated the existing ban on virtual currencies, reinforcing the foundational 2018 prohibition and signaling continued government resolve to exclude crypto from the formal financial system at a time of growing informal adoption.

Algeria enacted Finance Law No. 17-11 (2018 budget law), whose Article 117 prohibited the purchase, sale, use, and possession of all virtual currencies, defined as digital assets lacking physical support. Published in Official Gazette No. 76, this was the foundational legal text making Algeria one of the world's earliest statutory crypto-prohibition jurisdictions, with violations subject to existing penal and financial regulations.