On July 14, 2025, Bitcoin, this cryptographic chimera, crossed a new Rubicon by reaching $123,205.09, once again shattering the mental barriers of classical economics.
Born in 2009 in the anonymous folds of the web and propelled by the ether of a white paper signed by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin was initially a simple peer-to-peer payment experiment. It has since become a monetary asset without a sovereign, without a central bank, without territorial anchoring. A disembodied currency, but with very real value, determined solely by the law of algorithmic supply and speculative demand.
Now, Bitcoin no longer serves to transact: it serves to exist. It has freed itself from its initial function as a facilitator of exchanges to become a pure store of value, a “digital gold” without a mine, without ingots, without customs, but endowed with unparalleled symbolic power. Central banks observe it with the worried curiosity reserved for persistent heresies.
“The world is adapting. Not Africa.”
While the US Congress is preparing to open its “Crypto Week,” lawmakers in the North are already debating a smart regulation of cryptocurrencies, halfway between cautious regulation and overt institutionalization. Even Larry Fink (BlackRock), Jerome Powell (Fed), and Goldman Sachs no longer hide their interest in this new digital order.
Meanwhile, the African continent is closing itself off in regulatory reluctance that speaks volumes about its difficulty in thinking about currency outside of classical paradigms.
The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), as the dogmatic guardian of the CFA franc, seems wary of Bitcoin in its economic outlook notes but is discreetly experimenting with a MNBC in its laboratories. The Bank of Central African States (BEAC), even more rigid, has stifled the Central African audacity of the Sango Coin (a currency harshly sanctioned by the market) in its infancy, asserting with authority that in the CEMAC zone, monetary innovation remains primarily an institutional monopoly.
Morocco, on the other hand, offers an elegant exception: its Bank Al-Maghrib is working on a nuanced regulatory framework while studying a central digital currency. But once again, caution prevails over vision.
South Africa, on the other hand, embraces its position as the monetary laboratory of the continent: regulating platforms, recognizing crypto-assets as financial assets, and developing a coherent policy. There, Bitcoin is not a fantasy: it is an asset, regulated, monitored, integrated.
Yet African realities should make the continent a fertile ground for cryptocurrencies: chronic inflation, capital controls, banking exclusion, exchange rate volatility, transaction informality. But no: there is prohibition, censorship, temporization, while the young African generations, connected, code, trade, and challenge the established order through decentralized exchanges.
“Irony lesson: what scares institutions attracts people.”
In this context, the refusal of African central banks to create an intelligent framework for cryptocurrencies protects neither their sovereignty nor their legitimacy. It only leaves the field open to digital giants, foreign stablecoins, and offshore arbitrages. Africa, lacking doctrine, is undergoing a revolution it could have co-constructed.
Bitcoin, a mirror of our archaisms.
This rise of Bitcoin – which has gained more than 20% since the beginning of the year – is part of a global dynamic where technological assets take precedence over traditional institutions. Nvidia’s capitalization is nearing 4 trillion, the appetite for risky assets is expanding, and monetary policies are groping.
Bitcoin thrives on suspicion. It is a symptom of a world where trust no longer lies with central banks but with lines of code.
