A would-be crypto baron plies his trade in the Taliban's shadow
Cryptocurrency booms are often fueled by dreams of life-changing riches. In Afghanistan, buyers are instead snapping up digital coins in hopes of preserving what wealth they have -- and keeping it out of the Taliban’s reach.
In a white-walled office beside a open-air foreign exchange market, Habibullah Timori and his four employees are making trades for customers, using their Samsung phones. Chinese-made security cameras surveil. A sign on the wall says: “Kindly refrain from demanding a loan.”
The place is Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city, an oasis in the western desert about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Iranian border. Timori said his Maihan Crypto is the largest of the country’s six crypto brokerages, four of which are located in Herat.
Many customers aren’t looking to buy Bitcoin. Instead, they want stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to an asset such as the dollar and designed to retain their value.
“Demand for cryptocurrencies is high,” Timori, 26, said in a video interview. “During other crises, people stored their cash and jewelry in the ground or under their pillows. This time, they’ve decided to keep it buried in crypto.”
Naser Ali, a property dealer in the city, first visited Maihan in October, paying 150 afghani ($1.73) for a 45-minute cryptocurrency training session and then registering an account with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Ali, also 26, was worried the Taliban would seek to confiscate his assets, amid reports the militant group was storming into residences and taking belongings.
In November, he took $30,000 from a safe at home and converted it into Tether, the biggest stablecoin. Maihan helped him do the deal.
“I wish I’d known about cryptocurrencies sooner, before the Taliban
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