Report contents
APAC · Frontier
Nepal
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 | 15 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +1 |
| Inflation 4.8% · unbanked 40% · remittances 26.2% GDP · capital controls 0.84 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.467 |
| Need multiplier | ×1.200 |
| Livability score | 0.214 |
Raw 15/84 = 0.179 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.47, from five components: inflation 4.8% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 40% of adults, remittances 26.2% of GDP, at the 25% clamp, capital-control intensity 0.84 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×1.20. Livability score 0.214, rank #76 of 79.
Three findings
Last in the world on raw capability, and one of the most enforced bans anywhere
Nepal scores 15/84, the joint-lowest capability in the index, and a clean 0/20 on regulation. The central bank has banned crypto use, trade, ownership, mining and even promotion since 2017, consolidated in 2022, with the Cyber Bureau making 50-plus arrests in 2024 to 2025 and ISPs ordered to block over 200 crypto domains. Penalties reach multi-year prison terms.
The need is extreme even as the rails are crushed
Remittances run 26.2% of GDP, the highest in the region and pinned at the index clamp, and 40% of adults are unbanked. Yet because the formal Gulf-to-Nepal corridor through licensed money-transfer operators works well, the economic pressure to bypass it is weaker than in Myanmar or Venezuela, and enforcement keeps the crypto remittance share below 1%.
Enforcement reaches the individual, which sets Nepal apart from softer bans
Unlike Bangladesh or Iraq, where freezes target operators, Nepal's regime criminalises VPN-mediated access itself under 2025 guidelines and has jailed families for USDT trading. A thin underground Binance P2P market persists, described locally as something that "won't stop," but it operates at high personal risk.
In one line
"A quarter of Nepal's economy arrives as money from relatives working abroad. The country bans crypto more harshly than almost anywhere, yet the need that would drive people to it is among the highest on Earth."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 0/4, already at the floor. The ban remained unchanged through 2025, enforced via the Cyber Bureau, with no legislative drafts, consultations or liberalising signals on record. Central-bank digital-currency research is underway but explicitly excludes recognition of private crypto, so the only item to watch is whether enforcement intensity shifts rather than the legal stance.