Egypt wants to ban Bitcoin trading within the country’s territory – the chief mufti of the country, Sheikh Shawki Allam, issued a fatwa prohibiting operations with cryptocurrencies, BBC reports. According to Allam, Bitcoin is “banned by Islam,” as it is accompanied by “fraud, deception and ignorance." Fatwa is a legal position on some issue formulated by representatives of the Muslim clergy. Usually, it has no legal power, but it has influence among believers.
In August 2017, Egypt opened the first site for trading Bitcoin, but in December secular authorities of the country declared the cryptocurrency out-of-law. As noted by the Chief Mufti of Egypt, the risks associated with the use of Bitcoin may arise, since this virtual currency is not under the supervision of any centralized authority. “Bitcoins are forbidden by the Sharia because they damage individuals, groups of individuals or institutions,” the largest Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram cites the fatwa.
According to the Bloomberg agency, in 2017, Bitcoin went up by 1,403% against the US dollar - at the beginning of last year, it was worth less than $1,000, and on December 18 it rose to a peak of $19,511. However, it lost a significant portion of the gains. For the last week of the year, it tried to keep above $15,000, but it could not do it for the greatest portion of that period. This Monday, Bitcoin fell below $13,000. However, on Tuesday, the coin futures closed at a CBOE Global Markets in Chicago just above $15,000 on the news that the Founders Fund, led by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, had invested from $15 million to $20 million in Bitcoin in mid-2017.
Adviser to the chief Mufti, Magdi Ashor, said in an interview with Egypt Today that Bitcoin is used “directly for the financing of terrorists.”