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Starving Afghans Use Crypto to Sidestep U.S. Sanctions, Banks, and the Taliban

• jevoten 5y ago
  > A liquidity crisis is at the heart of the growing catastrophe in Afghanistan. Following the pullout of U.S. forces last August, the country was isolated overnight. The U.S. seized assets from the Afghan central bank and ended transfers of U.S. currency. Companies in Poland and France contracted to print the afghani ended shipments. Almost immediately, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as the SWIFT system, which underpins international financial transactions, suspended services in Afghanistan. Commercial banks couldn’t lend money, and retail customers couldn’t take their own money out of banks. So that's why Afghans are starving. Most media omit US sanctions, and report only that "The Taliban took over, and now there's famine"