Report contents
MENA · Developing
Morocco
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 | 28 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +1 |
| Inflation 2.6% · unbanked 56% · remittances 7.8% GDP · capital controls 0.84 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.352 |
| Need multiplier | ×1.027 |
| Livability score | 0.342 |
Raw 28/84 = 0.333 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.35, from five components: inflation 2.6% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 56% of adults, remittances 7.8% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.84 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×1.03. Livability score 0.342, rank #61 of 79.
Three findings
A banned, flourishing market: 6 million users under a 2017 prohibition
Morocco's 2017 joint ban by the Exchange Office, Bank Al-Maghrib, and the capital-market authority remained fully in force at the cutoff, driving the legal-status, tax, and income sub-scores to zero. Roughly 6 million Moroccans, about 16 percent of the population, hold crypto regardless, on a market estimated near 278.7 million dollars, all of it routed through offshore exchanges.
The clearest law-versus-behaviour gap in the index
Exchange access scores a full 4 even though formal banking is blocked, because Tether-for-dirham P2P (peer-to-peer trading between individuals) runs actively on Binance, Kraken, and Bybit plus OTC desks. Enforcement is real but selective: 2025 saw more than 80 cases against individuals and 12 against platforms, yet the underground market kept expanding.
A draft law that could become a top regional upgrade
In November 2025 the Finance Ministry, Bank Al-Maghrib, and the capital-market and insurance authorities jointly published Bill 42.25, a comprehensive VASP (virtual asset service provider) licensing framework aligned to IMF and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards, covering stablecoins and tokenised securities. Published but not enacted at the cutoff, it positions Morocco for one of the most significant 2026 shifts from outright ban to regulated market.
In one line
"Morocco banned crypto in 2017 and six million Moroccans bought it anyway. The country is now drafting the law that would legalise what its citizens already do, which is the clearest sign that prohibition lost the argument on the ground."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 3/4, trending liberalising. Bill 42.25, co-developed by the Finance Ministry, Bank Al-Maghrib, the capital-market authority, and the insurance regulator, was published for consultation in November 2025 and establishes a national financial-intelligence authority alongside the licensing regime. Enactment, expected mid-2026, would move legal status from a hard 0 toward a regulated framework.