Over the past three weeks, Ethiopia has quietly restricted access to major global crypto exchange websites — Binance, OKX, and Bybit — in what industry watchers describe as a “silent blockade” targeting unregulated peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto markets.
While the exchanges’ mobile apps remain functional, their official websites are inaccessible from Ethiopian IP addresses without a VPN, suggesting a deliberate network-level restriction rather than a random outage.
At the same time, users have reported that the “Buy” option on P2P trading platforms has been suspended, preventing Ethiopians from purchasing crypto using the local currency (ETB). The “Sell” function, however, remains active — allowing existing crypto holders to liquidate their assets into Birr.
Binance Confirms Regulatory Engagement
In an email to users titled “Dear Binancians,” the world’s largest exchange acknowledged that local regulators had requested compliance measures relating to parallel market activities. The message reads:
“We understand that the recent lack of P2P adverts has been inconvenient for many of our users, and we sincerely appreciate your patience.
Over the past few weeks, Binance has been engaged by local regulators to adhere to their instructions and support their efforts to manage parallel markets.
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