Kurdcoin founder says lack of regulation crypto's big challenge in Iraq
Al-Monitor interviewed Abdurrahman Bapir, who heads Iraq’s first cryptocurrency exchange, on the appeal of cryptocurrency in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and how the crypto crash has affected the domestic market.
Cryptocurrency is becoming more popular in Iraq, where the lack of a robust financial system is driving people to use it, the head of the country’s first cryptocurrency exchange told Al-Monitor.
“We don’t have a trading or financial system,” said CEO and founder of Kurdcoin Abdurrahman Bapir. “Crypto has become an alternative to what has failed them.”
Al-Monitor interviewed Bapir about all things cryptocurrency in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, including challenges, demographics, societal views and the effects of the crypto crash.
Kurdcoin started operation in 2017 in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Most clients are from the Kurdistan Region, though there are others from Mosul, Najaf and elsewhere in Iraq. The overwhelming majority of Kurdcoin users are male and most of them are businesspeople, programmers and young people interested in technology.
