Crypto Regulation in Tunisia: Is Bitcoin Legal in 2026?

Is crypto legal in Tunisia? The honest answer, as of October 2026, is that Tunisia has no dedicated law on crypto-assets: they are neither recognised as money nor governed by a specific licensing regime. What exists instead is a strict foreign exchange framework, official warnings about legal risk, and draft laws that would regulate crypto for the first time but have not been adopted. This article explains what that grey zone means in practice.

No crypto law, but not a free zone

Many websites describe Tunisia as having a "total ban" on cryptocurrency. We could not trace that claim to a specific statute or published central bank circular. The more accurate picture comes from the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) itself.

In March 2022, then-governor Marouane El Abassi told Managers that young Tunisians were already using crypto-assets even though no regulatory framework existed, and that some had been jailed because of that legal gap. He said the central bank considered regulation necessary to clear up the uncertainty, but that crypto policy was not the BCT's decision alone and had to be agreed with the government.

That is the core of the issue: crypto is not specifically banned, but it collides with other laws, above all the foreign exchange code.

Why the FX code is the real constraint

Tunisia's foreign exchange regime still rests on Law No. 76-18 of 21 January 1976. It is built on prior authorisation: residents need BCT approval for many operations involving foreign currency or assets held abroad. Read our full explainer on the FX code reform.

Crypto runs into this framework in several ways:

• buying crypto on a foreign exchange platform usually means paying in foreign currency or with a card, which falls under FX rules;
• crypto held on a foreign platform can be treated as an asset held abroad;
• buying through informal peer-to-peer channels can amount to an unauthorised currency operation. As early as 2017, an analyst quoted by Ilboursa warned that buyers on the parallel market would be breaching FX regulation.

The 1976 code was not written with crypto in mind, which is precisely why its application is uncertain and why the governor spoke of a legal gap.

What the BCT has said about crypto's status

The clearest signal of the authorities' thinking came from draft texts rather than enacted law. In February 2023, Managers reported that a preliminary version of the new FX code it had consulted stated that crypto-assets "do not have the legal status of a currency", while defining them as digital representations of value accepted by some people as a means of exchange.

In practice, this means:

• crypto is not legal tender in Tunisia, and the dinar remains the only legal currency;
• crypto-assets would be treated as a category of asset, not money;
• any future regime would come through the FX code, with the BCT in charge.

The drafts that would regulate crypto

Three successive texts have addressed crypto, none of them yet in force.

The 2024 government draft

In March 2024, a ministerial council adopted a draft FX code. The Prime Ministry listed the authorisation of crypto-asset transactions among its main measures. The then finance minister, Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia, explained on Express FM that the draft would let Tunisian citizens hold and trade cryptocurrencies, subject to prior BCT authorisation and a significant financial threshold to be set later by regulation. The draft was never put to a vote.

The 2025 parliamentary bill

On 21 October 2025, MP Maher Ktari filed a full FX code bill. According to Webdo, it addresses digital assets, remote payment systems and virtual currencies, and would let residents use international platforms such as PayPal or crypto-asset-based solutions, especially freelancers paid in foreign currency.

The committee text (2026)

African Manager's April 2026 reading of the text before the Finance Committee describes a definition of crypto-assets as digital representations of value or rights that can be transferred electronically, an obligation for residents to declare crypto-assets above a threshold and to repatriate earnings from digital assets, and penalties for serious violations of up to three years in prison. As of July 2026 the bill was still in committee, waiting for the central bank's input, and the Ministry of Finance had suggested pushing its examination to 2027.

Crypto and blockchain inside the system

Tunisia's institutions have experimented with the underlying technology even without a crypto law:

• the first cohort of the BCT regulatory sandbox, announced in late 2020, included projects on crypto-assets and central bank digital currency;
• according to The Fintech Times, in July 2021 the BCT and the Banque de France completed a joint wholesale central bank digital currency experiment for transfers between French and Tunisian commercial banks.

These tests concern central bank money and supervised pilots, not open public trading of crypto.

What it means for Tunisian users and founders

For individuals, the practical message is caution. There is no licensed Tunisian crypto exchange, no investor protection regime and, according to the central bank's own former governor, a real risk of prosecution under existing laws. Anyone holding or trading crypto should take legal advice rather than rely on online claims either way.

For founders, the consequences are clearer still:

• No licence exists for a crypto exchange, custodian or stablecoin issuer in Tunisia today.
• Tokens cannot replace payment rails. Licensed payment services must run in dinars through payment institutions or banks.
• The sandbox is the only supervised entry point for blockchain-based financial experiments.
• Watch the FX code. If adopted, it would create the first legal basis for holding crypto, but under BCT authorisation, declaration and repatriation rules. The detailed thresholds would come only with implementing texts.

For how crypto and stablecoins are being used elsewhere on the continent, see our Africa coverage. In Tunisia, adoption will depend less on demand than on whether and when parliament finally adopts a new FX code.