Crypto currencies, which are currently illegal to both buy or trade in Morocco, will soon be perfectly legal, according to new laws being drafted by Rabat, according to Reuters.

Maghrebi cannot verify Reuters reports from Morocco as the news organization appears to be very close to the state and only tends to report favourably about the kingdom.

However, it claims that a draft law on cryptocurrencies is about to be adopted in Morocco, the governor of its central bank, Abdellatif Jouahri, said on November 26th.

Cryptocurrencies have been banned in Morocco since 2017, but the public continues to use them underground, circumventing restrictions. Many Moroccans have resorted to paying huge set up fees to have bank accounts outside of Morocco simply to trade in cryptos, as it has not been possible to do this within local bank accounts.

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Yet just recently it would appear that the King’s advisors have looked at Crypto from a different perspective, perhaps believing that a Moroccan crypto coin might be a winner, bringing in more hard currency to the central bank which desperately needs dollars, euros and pounds sterling. Another aspect might be that crypto currencies are expected to have a boom period under Donald Trump as US president.

The central bank, known as Bank Al Maghrib, “has prepared a draft law regulating crypto assets, which is currently in the adoption process,” Jouahri told an international conference in Rabat.

Bank Al Maghrib was also exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), he said.

“Regarding central bank digital currencies, and like many countries around the world, we are exploring to what extent this new form of currency could contribute to achieving certain public policy objectives, particularly in terms of financial inclusion,” he said.

Reuters