Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Research in Globalization
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resglo

The status of cryptocurrency in Morocco

Zakaria Bziker
Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Cryptocurrency is a new economy of transacting value whose use case is undeniable. Its only requirement is to
Cryptocurrency be human, and it is borderless. In Morocco, cryptocurrency is erasing borders and gaining popularity. However,
Morocco the general public opinion on this new innovation is unclear. This study aims to elucidate the popularity of this
Blockchain technology technology in the Kingdom by means of a small survey. The present study also investigates areas related to
Bitcoin
cryptocurrency, such as people’s trust in banks. The results from the survey are contrasted with other countries
Decentralization
Global economy
to obtain a global perspective regarding Morocco’s placement in the cryptocurrency adoption spectrum. The
Distributed ledger results also suggest that Morocco has the potential to adopt this technology. Notably, 9% of the sample popu-
lation claim that they have owned, or still own, some sort of cryptocurrency. However, the country faces legal
obstructions and financial restrictions that impede the progress of cryptocurrency adoption.

Introduction the state. This global sentiment has been brewing since the Great
Depression throughout the cyclic financial crises that the world has
Although cryptocurrency has been attracting much attention, espe- undergone. The Internet is at the heart of this sentiment, and it is
cially in contemporary times, its relevance does not necessary stem decentralized by nature. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the
from the robustness of its technology but rather from an increasing native currencies of the Internet. Like the Internet, decentralization
human need for a trustless system that manages human interactions. is the main aspect of cryptocurrencies. There is no single point of fail-
At face value, the invention of the blockchain1, that is, the underlying ure. There are copies of cryptocurrency ledgers in millions of comput-
cryptocurrency technology, seems to be a direct consequence of the ers all over the world, and there are even copies of the Bitcoin ledger
2008 financial crisis. However, its emergence can be regarded as a his- in orbiting satellites (Nasdaq, 2017). The network, which self‐corrects,
torical necessity, which is fueled by the advent of the Internet, and it has does not need human intervention, and it cannot be cheated nor
been growing since the world’s choice of a fiat currency system in 1971 destroyed. The robustness and virus‐like tendency of this technology
when the U.S. dollar has become untethered to gold. Since then, the U.S. is a threat to many governments around the world, especially countries
dollar value has been decoupled from gold, and it has been floating on with high inflation rates. Citizens of such countries see cryptocurrency
its own without any anchor to its value. Moreover, several other fiat cur- as a safe haven to store their wealth as a hedge against their local
rencies have based their value on the U.S. dollar, and the Moroccan dir- inflated currency. Furthermore, governments that are going through
ham is no exception. It is partially pegged to the U.S. dollar by 40% periods of unrest cannot seize the assets of rebels and freedom fighters
(Eljechtimi, 2020). Thus, cryptocurrencies question the validity of who may use cryptocurrencies to transact in order to escape govern-
today’s fiat currency system. ment sanctions (Koffman, 2020). Morocco, as a case study in this arti-
With the growth of the quantitative easing stimulus plans of the U. cle, is not experiencing waves of unrest and does not have an inflation
S. Federal Reserve, especially in the wake of the COVID‐19 crisis, more problem. Nevertheless, cryptocurrency is banned in the country. Thus,
people are becoming skeptical as to why their government is in control this study aims to explore the state of affairs of cryptocurrency within
of money in the first place, which is similar to the widespread cynicism this context. It seeks to highlight the general public opinion on digital
as to why the state was in control of religion during the late middle assets and how popular they are among people. The main motivation
ages. The Renaissance detached religion from the state, and now, per- for this article is the absence of such exploratory studies in the
haps, it is time for the blockchain technology to detach money from Kingdom.

E-mail address: zakaria.bziker@uit.ac.ma

1
“Blockchain technology refers to a fully distributed system for cryptographically capturing and storing a consistent, immutable, and linear event log of transactions between network
actors. This is functionally similar to a distributed ledger that is consensually kept, updated, and validated by the parties involved in all the transactions within a network. In such a
network, blockchain technology enforces transparency and guarantees eventual, system‐wide consensus on the validity of an entire history of transactions” (Risius & Spohrer, 2017).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2021.100040
Received 15 October 2020; Revised 14 March 2021; Accepted 15 March 2021
Available online 18 March 2021
2590-051X/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Literature review Antonopoulos (2016) further gives an example of a smart network

such as the telephone network. Regardless of how much the landline
Cryptocurrency in Morocco telephone device is improved, there is always a restriction by the tele-
phone cable network. Conversely, the Internet and blockchain are
Morocco has banned Bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions since dumb networks, and they both have the potential to host the integra-
November 20, 2017 (Office des Changes, 2017). The ban has not been tion of any other layer of innovation.
met with any resistance except from those who have stakes in the cryp- Generally, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are still in
tocurrency space in some sort of way. Any existing resistance has been the experimental phase, and thus, there is limited literature on the
unnoticed because it has been limited to a small virtual community topic, especially studies that investigate the effects of this innovation
since then. The following is an example of people’s opinion of the on society and culture. Blockchain technology is less than 13 years
government: old as of March 2021 (i.e., since the release of the Bitcoin white paper
in 2008). The major area of progress in this field is in IT development,
“hiding its head in the sand by focusing on vague risks and did not
which is mostly technical. Risius (2017) notices the lack of attention
measure the benefits we could reap from Bitcoin and the block-
from researchers outside the IT development fields as follows:
chain technology to solve thorny issues in our country.”
“The amount of business‐related quantitative research beyond
This statement is according to Badr Bellaj, a Moroccan blockchain
cryptocurrencies is, however, extremely limited, and theory‐
consultant (Jusdanis, 2017). According to the Moroccan exchange
driven empirical research on blockchain‐related phenomena is gen-
office, the reason why Morocco has banned cryptocurrency is vaguely
erally scarce. On the one hand, this may be owing to the fact that
stated. It asserts that the space needs regulation and, consequently, the
blockchain technology is still relatively nascent in the hype cycle,
lack thereof constitutes a danger to people using cryptocurrencies.
and it took long for researchers from outside computer science to
Moreover, it urges people to comply with current regulations and
realize the technology’s potential. On the other hand, it may be
use accredited financial intermediaries for any sort of transactions
owing to researchers’ lack of knowledge about how to collect data
and remittances (Office des Changes, 2017). Nevertheless, a few
for meaningful quantitative analyses in an area that has long been
months later, Brookstone Partners, a U.S. firm, announces that it is
dominated by technical jargon and conceptual fuzziness.”
considering building a wind farm megaproject in the city of Dakhla
(southern coast of the Kingdom) to generate clean energy to mining
cryptocurrency (Hirtenstein, 2018). The ambition of the firm does This inattention to blockchain technology can also explain why
not seem to consider the local laws regarding cryptocurrencies within cryptocurrencies are still speculative markets. The academic world is
the Kingdom; otherwise, it can be a hint of ongoing negotiations that yet to comprehend the rapid growth of the technology and establish
the general public is unaware of. a solid theoretical framework for future research. The current study
The main argument that supports the legitimization of the ban for provides a different perspective on the technology. It is an exploratory
countries such as Morocco is that cryptocurrencies might challenge the study that attempts to fill one of the many gaps in the literature sur-
local currency. As they cannot control the cryptocurrency space, it is rounding this new topic in a very narrow geographical context.
essential that they control what people use as a medium of exchange.
Another argument is that if people are allowed to use cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency is unstoppable
remittances would flow through digital assets. If so, this may reduce
the inflow of hard currencies, such as the euro and the U.S. dollar, As of September 2020, 9 countries have banned cryptocurrencies.
to the country through the Central Bank of Morocco (Bank Al Magh- These countries are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Pak-
rib), thereby consequently diminishing the country’s foreign currency istan, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam (Library of Congress, 2020).
reserves. Nevertheless, if a country bans cryptocurrencies, it does not Comparatively, however, this number is inconsiderable based on the
mean that its people cannot use them. Cryptocurrencies, especially Bit- total number of countries in the world. The small number of such
coin, have survived for over a decade primarily because they are countries already indicates that the world is not universally against
control‐resistant. No country in the world has the power to stop the the idea of consensus networks and trustless systems.
transactions, and the only feasible way to terminate it is to put an The idea behind the blockchain technology is revolutionary, and it
end to the Internet worldwide. Nonetheless, cryptocurrencies are still is here to stay. It is one of the ideas that humanity cannot unlearn, and
at an early adoption, therefore, they may not constitute a threat to it is similar to the idea of democracy. Once the world learned democ-
local currencies yet. racy in antiquity, it could not unlearn it. It kept spreading and getting
As mentioned earlier, although cryptocurrencies are banned in stronger. Likewise, blockchain is a strong concept and has a solid
Morocco, their use cannot be stopped. There is no practical way for philosophical foundation.
any government to enforce the ban as long as people have smart- “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come”
phones and access to the Internet. Anybody can be part of the cryp- (Victor Hugo).
tocurrency public ledgers as neither identification (ID) nor signing The idea of blockchain technology entails a tool that removes the
up is required. The cryptocurrency network is agnostic as to whether human agency at the center of verifying transactions and interactions.
you are an animal or human. It is a dumb network with less restrictions It is called a trustless system in the sense that we do not trust people or
and limitless potential. Antonopoulos (2016) expands on this point by institutions, but we rather trust the algorithms. This eliminates human
stating that: error and corruption. Nonetheless, trust is still present as we have to
trust the system to work in the same way that we trust institutions.
“Some networks are “smart.” They offer sophisticated services that However, institutions can make a value judgement on an individual.
can be delivered to very simple end‐user devices on the “edge” of Blockchain is agnostic as to who you are or what you do.
the network. Other networks are “dumb”—they offer only a very Bitcoin is a virus that pays you to keep it alive. Whoever created
basic service and require that the end‐user devices be intelligent. Bitcoin can be referred to as a true anarchist. We do not know who
What’s smart about dumb networks is that they push innovation they are, and the only trace available is a name: Satoshi Nakamoto.
to the edge, giving end users control over the pace and direction It is totally understandable for the Bitcoin creator to release the Bitcoin
of innovation. Simplicity at the center allows for complexity at white paper, launch the Bitcoin cryptographic protocol on the internet,
the edge, which fosters the vast decentralization of services.” and then disappear; otherwise, they would be excoriated. The Bitcoin

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Fig. 1. Bitcoin Legality Around the World - Howmuch.

white paper (Nakamoto, 2009) is a masterpiece and a major break- Revolution or Industry 4.0 (Schwab, 2016). Bitcoin is only one cryp-
through in cryptography. It is revolutionary and disruptive—impreg- tocurrency among thousands of others, and it is the most popular
nable, censorship resistant, decentralized, and indestructible. If the because it controls the largest market capital. Its dominance hovers
supercomputers of big corporations, including Google, Apple, Micro- between 50 and 60% of the whole cryptocurrency market capital.
soft, Amazon, and so on, combine with the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other Moreover, its large market capital stems from the fact that it is the first
government agencies attempt a coordinated attack on the Bitcoin net- cryptocurrency that has been developed, which endows it with the
work, they would most likely fail. This is because the network operates first‐mover privilege/advantage. Bitcoin has been reported to be the
on the combined processing power of all the computers and supercom- outcome of an innocent experiment, and it has, thus, become the most
puters of the miners and people around the world. If the attacker’s trusted cryptocurrency and the sixth largest currency in the world
computer processing power exceeds that of Bitcoin (also known as (Wiesflecker, 2020). However, the rank might vary depending on
the 51% attack), the network would fork into two Bitcoin ledgers, whether certain assets, such as silver, gold, or pegged currencies,
and the honest miners will keep adding blocks to their own fork and including the Danish krone, are considered as currencies. There are
ignore the one created by the attacker (Hammerschmidt, 2017). thousands of cryptocurrencies competing with their use cases for the
The three concepts, that is, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin cryptocurrency market capital. Soon, corporations and governments
can be confusing and sometimes might be used interchangeably. will be attempting to creating their own cryptocurrency similar to
Blockchain is the technology that underlies cryptocurrencies. It is also the Facebook Libra project (Libra Association Members, 2019). How-
broadly known as the distributed ledger technology (DLT). Notably, ever, a truly decentralized cryptocurrency will always have more pop-
there are cryptocurrencies that do not rely on blockchain, and the ularity than crypto projects that are initiated by a government or
IOTA cryptocurrency developed by Popov (2015) is one of them. Its corporation. The promise of cryptocurrency is a currency of the peo-
mechanisms rely on a mathematical concept known as a directed acyc- ple, by the people, and for the people. Some companies have acknowl-
lic graph or tangle. The tangle system is efficient and cheaper to oper- edged this and have bought into Bitcoin rather than creating their own
ate. Blockchain, however, has seniority over the tangle system in terms cryptocurrency. Some exemplary cases include Tesla with its US$1.5
of security and adoption rate. Another example is hashgraph, which is billion bitcoin purchase (Telford, 2021), and MicroStrategy with its
developed by Leemon Baird (Baird, 2016). As a ledger mechanism, massive US$4.4 billion worth of bitcoin acquisition (approximately
hashgraph ensures the efficiency in the sense that the contribution 91,000 bitcoin as of March 5, 2021; (Nagarajan, 2021), along with
of every network member is not lost. Conversely, blockchain is redun- other major cryptocurrency assets, such as Ethereum and Litecoin.
dant and wastes network participants’ mining power. All of the three Tesla has also announced its plans to start accepting bitcoin and other
(blockchain, tangle, and hashgraph) are considered part of the DLT. major cryptocurrencies as payments in the near future (Telford, 2021).
Thus far, blockchain has withstood the test of time. Tangle and hash- This shows that the corporate trend is moving forward with cryptocur-
graph need mass adoption to justify their raison d'être. rency adoption.
Blockchain does not imply cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies (also
known as digital assets or virtual money) are only one application of
the blockchain. The blockchain technology can be used in many other Research questions and hypotheses
areas, such as voting, digital IDs, transfer of ownership titles, copyright
and royalty protection, immutable data backup, equity and real‐estate As stated earlier, the aim of this survey is to describe the popularity
ownership, ownership of non‐fungible tokens (NFTs), fractional own- of cryptocurrency within the Moroccan context. The few articles that
ership of pieces of art or other valuable assets such as gold, and so one finds about cryptocurrency in Morocco are mainly related to the
on, all of which are speculated to be part of The Fourth Industrial 2017 ban. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature, assess

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

the status of cryptocurrency in Morocco, and provide some implica- the graph below (Fig. 4). It is noticed that cryptocurrency is more pop-
tions of the study. ular than blockchain in Morocco. Notably, 58% of the sample popula-
The main hypotheses that this study attempts to investigate are as tion have heard of cryptocurrency before. Here, the majority knows
follows: about cryptocurrency whereas only 40% of the sample population
know about blockchain (see Fig. 3). This is expected because most peo-
- It is hypothesized that Moroccan people are aware of the cryptocur- ple seem to have heard about cryptocurrency before learning about
rency space. blockchain, which is mostly through cryptocurrency trading advertise-
- It is also speculated that Moroccans own and use cryptocurrency ments and stories of people making large fortunes from cryptocurrency
assets such as bitcoin despite the ban. gains.

The main research questions include: Trustworthiness in banking services

- To what extent are Moroccans aware of the existence of blockchain In a seemingly irrelevant question, participants are asked if they
technology? trusted banks (Fig. 5). This question is included to reveal if Moroccans
- Do Moroccans own cryptocurrency? are satisfied with banks realizing that cryptocurrency threatens to be
an alternative to banks, especially with the growing popularity of
Methodology stablecoins (with the exception of fiat‐backed ones). However, not
all cryptocurrencies are developed to replace fiat money. The first
All of the above‐mentioned questions will be addressed by means of application of blockchain (Bitcoin) was created as an alternative to fiat
distributing a questionnaire to a sample of 100 randomly selected peo- currencies. Fig. 5 shows that 60% of Moroccans do trust banks while
ple. The participant population includes people from various educa- 40% do not. Conversely, a recent study by DepositAccounts (2020)
tional stages, including middle school, high school, bachelor, and shows that only 40% of Americans trust their banks. Thus, according
graduate levels. Their ages range from 15 to 70 years. Gender‐wise, to this study, Moroccans trust banks more than Americans do. The rea-
70% of the population is male whereas the other 30% is female. The sons that may explain the disparity between the two countries vary,
survey begins by asking the participants the less known concepts in and some may be historical. However, we do not know if Moroccans
the cryptocurrency space to avoid any prejudice. For example, most will still trust their banks the same way if they obtain more knowledge
people have some sort of idea of what Bitcoin is, or at least have heard about cryptocurrency and blockchain. We know from a study con-
of it before. However, fewer people know about the blockchain tech- ducted by YouGov (Ballard, 2019) that 81% of Americans are familiar
nology. The questionnaire delays the mention of the word “Bitcoin” with cryptocurrency. This exposure might contribute to the negative
until the respondent is near the end of the questionnaire so that they attitudes toward banks among Americans. The lack of perspective
can remain unaffected by what the term “Bitcoin” entails for them. can play a role behind the trust Moroccans have in their banks. Nota-
The questionnaire is entitled “Digital Assets in Morocco.” This is done bly, the late (2008) financial crisis was mainly caused by the excessive
deliberately to avoid the use of the term “cryptocurrency” which may risk taken by U.S. banks in granting subprime loans, which left a scar
trigger preexisting attitudes in the participants. All of this is done to on Americans in particular and might be responsible for their current
ensure that the study is as objective and representative as possible. attitudes toward banks.
The preliminary results do show that more people know more about
Bitcoin than they do about blockchain. Trustworthiness in cryptocurrency
Findings
A follow‐up question to the previous one tries to investigate
whether Moroccans are open to the idea of blockchain replacing banks
The popularity of the blockchain technology in Morocco
and the local currency. As shown below in Fig. 6, it is a multiple choice
question wherein we observe an equal distribution of answers, with
In reaction to the question “Have you heard of Blockchain technol-
the majority answering “maybe.” They are open to the idea of trusting
ogy?” 60% respond “No”, while 40% respond “Yes,” as shown in
cryptocurrency and using it in everyday life instead of local currency
Fig. 2. The majority has never heard of blockchain technology which
and banking services. Moreover, 25% of the participants have not
is understandable as the technology is still in its infancy, and people
heard of the term “cryptocurrency” but are open to this new technol-
are more familiar with Bitcoin than blockchain in Morocco, as con-
ogy. Furthermore, 17% of the participants would fully trust the tech-
firmed in Fig. 2.
nology to replace banks and local currency. The remaining 19% of
In Fig. 3, the majority of those who do know or have heard about
the participants claim that they would not trust cryptocurrency. The
blockchain technology (67%) think that the technology is important
last segment constitutes the minority within a majority that is mostly
(27% of the total sample population and 67% of the segment of the
in favor of giving the technology a chance to manage their financial
pupation that has heard about blockchain). Furthermore, those who
assets. This is a small percentage when compared to those who do
think the technology is “very important” constitute 30% of those
not trust banks. There are more Moroccans who do not trust banks
who have heard it (they also constitute 12% of the total population
than those who do not trust cryptocurrency (60% versus 19%). These
as shown in Fig. 3). This is significant because it shows that those
numbers play in favor of cryptocurrency.
who have had the chance to learn about the technology are very likely
to recognize its use‐case potential. It is only 5% of those who know
The popularity of Bitcoin in Morocco
about blockchain technology and still think that the technology is
unimportant (or 2% of the total population). We can thus conclude
The following question investigates the popularity of Bitcoin in
that maybe the Moroccan context is open to this new technology.
Morocco. As presented in Fig. 7, 87% of Moroccans have heard of Bit-
We still do not know why Moroccans think this technology is “impor-
coin. To have some perspective, according to YouGov survey, the vast
tant,” or otherwise for those who think it is not.
majority in the U.K., that is 93%, have heard of Bitcoin before
The popularity of cryptocurrency in Morocco (Waldersee, 2018). Another survey shows that 75% of Americans have
heard of Bitcoin before (Ballard, 2019). Morocco falls between the two
When the questionnaire progresses from the concept of blockchain countries where Bitcoin is not banned and can be easily acquired and
to that of cryptocurrency, we can see the difference in the responses in traded.

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Fig. 2. Popularity of blockchain technology in Morocco.

Fig. 3. The importance of blockchain for Moroccans.

Fig. 4. The popularity of cryptocurrency in Morocco.

Bitcoin seems to be popular as a recognized brand name in Mor- lows: Nigeria, Vietnam, South Africa, Turkey, Peru, Spain, China, U.S.,
occo. There is a significant chunk of the sample population that have Germany, and Japan. This ranking keeps adjusting due to laws and
heard of Bitcoin, which is similar to some crypto‐friendly countries. various other social factors.
However, we do not know how much or what people know about Bit- The reasons behind the sudden spark in Bitcoin use in a certain
coin. In terms of adoption, the country still lags behind. Currently country are various. For example, reliance on remittances can lead a
(as of August 2020), the Bitcoin adoption ranking of countries is as fol- population to resort to cryptocurrencies if the traditional remittance

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Fig. 5. Moroccans' trust in banking institutions.

Fig. 6. Moroccans' trust in cryptocurrencies.

Fig. 7. The popularity of Bitcoin in Morocco.

services are expensive. This is the example of Nigeria (See Fig. 8). This Currently, there is no way for Moroccans to acquire bitcoin or any
very factor propels people to use cryptocurrencies for other purposes. other cryptocurrency. This is because there is no cryptocurrency
For example, they can use them for shopping and transacting among exchange in Morocco due to the ban and the lack of entrepreneurial
themselves, thereby driving businesses to start accepting cryptocur- ventures in this area. Additionally, Moroccans are ineligible to open
rency payments for the ease and convenience they provide, especially an account in a foreign cryptocurrency exchange because of eligibility
for the unbanked and underbanked. Other reasons could be specula- issues. Less known cryptocurrency exchanges may allow Moroccans to
tive investments and a hedge against traditional securities, such as have an account, but these exchanges can have trust and security
stocks and futures. issues that pose a financial risk. Another challenge for Moroccans is

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

Implications

The ban is not enforced and does not change people’s practices.
There has not been any case of an individual who has been caught
by the authorities for transacting in cryptocurrency in Morocco. People
are free to talk about cryptocurrency in social media and real life.
Prominent social media influencer and YouTuber, Raghib Amine, has
talked about Bitcoin on multiple occasions. In a recent Facebook post
on January 7th, 2021, when Bitcoin was at approximately US$40,000,
he said:
“Bitcoin is at US$40,000… Our children will hold us accountable in
the future: Dad, where were you when Bitcoin was at US$200?”

This post has received a good amount of attention and engagement

from his followers. The post is implicitly encouraging people to buy
Bitcoin as an investment. The government does not pay attention to
this post nor any other similar posts by other social media influencers
in the country. This suggests that that presence of this law is indistin-
guishable from its absence. In light of this study, it is suspected that the
ban will eventually have to end at some point in the near future, and
Fig. 8. How Common is Crypto? Statista August 10th, 2020 (Buchholz, 2020). this will fuel further adoption.
As a result of the need to acquire digital assets in Morocco, we may
see a growth in cash‐based cryptocurrency transactions. If the ban
that even if they do open a foreign exchange account, they will expe-
ends, Moroccans would still face the challenge of buying cryptocurren-
rience difficulties in transferring money into the exchange because of
cies from foreign exchanges due to the nonexistence of Moroccan ones.
the stringent regulations that restrict and sometimes prevent an easy
This challenge would eventually drive people to seek other ways to
flow of currency outside of the Kingdom. The only way for Moroccans
buy into the market. One of them is seeking people in close geographic
to acquire cryptocurrency is via peer‐to‐peer cryptocurrency websites
proximity to meet and exchange cash for cryptocurrency. This can be
where people wishing to buy digital assets meet those who are willing
noticed in the growing number of Moroccan Facebook groups where
to sell in person and then send crypto‐assets to each other for cash.
people can already meet online. The numbers in this study project
an increase in cash‐based exchanges of digital assets as long as there
are no local cryptocurrency exchanges.
The use of cryptocurrency in Morocco
Conclusion
Notwithstanding all of the above‐mentioned challenges, Moroccans
seem to still be involved in some sort of way with the cryptocurrency The U.S., the U.K., and South Korea are examples of countries
space. The graph below (Fig. 9) shows that 9% of Moroccans own or where people already have easy access to cryptocurrencies via multi-
have owned cryptocurrencies. ple exchanges and platforms that can withdraw funds from one’s bank
Notably, 9% is a significant percentage. As of 2019, 19% of the with ease. Moroccan citizens do not have such privilege. They have to
world population own or use some sort of cryptocurrency asset acquire cryptocurrency by means of cash‐based transactions that
(Kaspersky, 2019). In the U.S. for example, the people who own cryp- escape the radars of the government and financial institutions. The
tocurrency constitute 14.4% of Americans in 2019 (Laycock, 2019). 9% of cryptocurrency holders and ex‐holders in Morocco could have
Furthermore, 7.4% of the population of South Korea, which is one of maybe been higher if the government were cryptocurrency‐friendly.
the leading countries in the cryptocurrency space in terms of trading The future of cryptocurrency in Morocco seems to be bright given
volume, has acquired cryptocurrency (Cermak, 2019). In the U.K., this the data shown in this study. The progress is muffled by regulations
percentage is only 3.86% of the population (The U.K. Financial Con- and lack of cryptocurrency exchanges. However, that might change,
duct Authority; FCA, 2020). These percentages give us a perspective especially as most people are in favor of the technology.
that shows that the rate of adoption seems to be higher in Morocco Morocco is a dynamic country and Moroccans are finding ways to
despite all of the financial restrictions. form cryptocurrency communities on the web where they share knowl-

Fig. 9. Owners of cryptocurrencies in Morocco.

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Z. Bziker Research in Globalization 3 (2021) 100040

edge and help one another. For example, the Facebook group called 2017/11/234805/moroccos-cryptocurrency-ban-will-create-serious-technological-
divide-warn-traders/.
“BITCOIN Moroccan Traders” currently has over 22,000 members.
Hammerschmidt, C. (2017). An Introduction to Understanding Attacks and Dishonesty
A sizeable number that shows this is more than a niche community. on Proof-of-Work Blockchains. Medium. https://medium.com/@chrshmmmr/an-
Upon carefully reviewing the activities of this Facebook group, one introduction-to-understanding-attacks-and-dishonesty-on-proof-of-work-
can notice that the members are not there to only trade cryptocurren- blockchains-9e7f547ed4c8.
Hirtenstein, A. (2018). Bloomberg. Brookstone Partners is planning a 900 megawatt
cies and make money. Members seem to be well aware of the funda- wind farm in southern Morocco to power a data center and Bitcoin mining
mentals of cryptocurrencies as well as their use case and potential. operation. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-27/bitcoin-
They understand that blockchain is a disruptive technology. This mining-private-equity-build-wind-farm-in-morocco.
Kaspersky (2019). Cryptocurrency Report 2019. https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/
observation indicates that there is a level of understanding and aware- cryptocurrency-report-2019/.
ness that is slowly evolving and expanding to other social categories. Kaspersky (2019). Uncharted Territory: Why Consumers Are Still Wary About
Adopting Cryptocurrency. https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/cryptocurrency-
report-2019/.
Declaration of Competing Interest Koffman, T. (2020). Why Bitcoin Is A Silent Protest Against Corrupt Governments.
Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/06/13/why-bitcoin-
is-a-silent-protest-against-corrupt-governments-everywhere/?sh=7c3e76923542.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial Laycock, R. (2019). A rising number of Americans own crypto. Finder. https://www.
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ- finder.com/how-many-people-own-cryptocurrency?ref=hackernoon.com.
ence the work reported in this paper. Library of Congress (2020) https://www.loc.gov/law/help/cryptocurrency/world-
survey.php.
Libra Association Members (2019). White Paper. https://www.diem.com/en-us/white-
paper/.
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