Report contents
APAC · Frontier
Cambodia
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 31 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +3 |
| Inflation 1.9% · unbanked 61% · remittances 6.1% GDP · capital controls 0 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.179 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.768 |
| Livability score | 0.283 |
Raw 31/84 = 0.369 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.18, from five components: inflation 1.9% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 61% of adults, remittances 6.1% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.77. Livability score 0.283, rank #71 of 79.
Three findings
Stablecoins allowed, Bitcoin still banned: a half-open door
Cambodia's December 2024 framework lets licensed banks handle Group 1 assets, stablecoins and tokenised securities, while keeping Group 2, including Bitcoin, prohibited. That partial opening is why legal status scores only 1; the country moved from a blanket ban toward a permission-based system, but the most common merchant rail remains illegal.
Regulation runs ahead of the rails
The two licensed sandbox exchanges are barred from direct crypto-to-fiat conversion and there are no bank on-ramps, so users must acquire crypto elsewhere before trading domestically, and 16 foreign exchanges including Binance were blocked at the telecom level in November 2024. A high informal P2P score of 3/4 coexists with near-zero formal access.
Need is real but the rails cannot meet it: the rank falls 7 places
With 61% of adults unbanked and remittances at 6.1% of GDP, the demand is clear, and Cambodian workers in Thailand, Korea and Malaysia send money home via P2P stablecoins. But the small user base and banned Bitcoin rail keep capability low, so applied need drags the country from #64 to #71.
In one line
"Cambodia opened the door to stablecoins while keeping Bitcoin shut, and built exchanges that cannot even convert crypto to cash. The intent to regulate is there; the working rails are not yet."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 3/4, trending liberalising. Prakas B7-024-735, signed 26 December 2024, moved Cambodia from a blanket ban to a permission-based system allowing banks to offer Group 1 services with central-bank approval, capped at 5% of bank capital, and in December 2025 the central bank and securities regulator began drafting a joint digital-asset guideline. Whether Group 2 assets like Bitcoin are ever admitted is the structural question for 2026.