Civil unrest in Lebanon has led all banks within the country to shut down. Crypto enthusiasts are saying that residents should exchange fiat for crypto as banking services might not resume during the unrest.
Civil unrest in Lebanon: Banking services down for over a week
Banking services were shut down in the country during the civil unrest and have been offline for over a week now. It is hard to imagine people managing without access to their assets stored in banks. It is even more challenging to see people move funds from one area or to another or from one entity to another during the crisis. Combined with the statistics that over 65 percent of Lebanese people use banks, it is easy to understand the level of the crisis faced by the people.
A senior executive at one of the banks revealed that the status quo would be maintained until everything gets back to normal. Although he tried to sugarcoat his words by saying the statement the other way around, “Once normalcy is restored, we are very happy that we can resume servicing our customers.”
Lebanese statistician Nassim Taleb stated that the shutdown could be the “most potent case for crypto.” He noted that the crisis proves that banks escape when they are needed the most and hence are untrustworthy. Instead, people can use crypto assets with no correlation to any political or geological factor.
Similar issues have been rearing there heads in Hong Kong and India, where people were cut off from their assets. Currency reforms in India left millions of individuals with worthless banknotes. People turned to crypto assets, which saw a massive spike in Bitcoin trading volume in the region. However, the government took a hard stance against them and caused the entire sector to evaporate.
