Dan28 wroteas we all know, investing in Lebanon is a gamble. hundreds of startups and businesses are closing, and investing in real estate is out of the equation after the absence of iskan.
I know this is not your main question but if you can afford it, now is the time to INVEST in real-estate. Otherwise if you think this country has no future at all, then you should take a different path altogether.
I don't know what is up with the recent uptick in financial questions on this forum but I'm always surprised that no one seems to suggest the most obvious thing to do.
Ask a professional, a financial advisor, a lawyer. If you're talking about $500k then I'm pretty sure you can afford to get help from a trained professional. Get a good lawyer, a good financial advisor, lebanese or otherwise and ask them what you should do. These people can usually save you more money than they charge or that you would have gotten otherwise without their help. That's why they exist.
Good luck and I hope it works out for you.
Elied wroteI don't know what is up with the recent uptick in financial questions on this forum but I'm always surprised that no one seems to suggest the most obvious thing to do.
Ask a professional, a financial advisor, a lawyer. If you're talking about $500k then I'm pretty sure you can afford to get help from a trained professional. Get a good lawyer, a good financial advisor, lebanese or otherwise and ask them what you should do. These people can usually save you more money than they charge or that you would have gotten otherwise without their help. That's why they exist.
Good luck and I hope it works out for you.
I respect this opinion but people in Lebanon are all after the money. Not everyone , just 99.99%. Since he already invested and have the cash , I am assuming he didn't do it in Lebanon and doesn't even get this cash here. Invest it in real estate or markets outside , hire an expert that will take a small comission % and it is all under the law. He can get screwed up here easily and aint nothing he can do about it , sadly. Correct if I am wrong but we've all heard alot of that
“These [bitcoin] are not currencies but rather a commodity whose prices rise and fall without any justification. For this reason, BDL has banned the use of this currency in the Lebanese market. The digital currency will be issued by BDL and will be available in the next few years,” he added.
I read about it on this same page. Bitcoin is banned , doesn't that mean you'll face issues if you own Bitcoin and use it in Lebanon ? Correct me if I am wrong

PS: you're better off buying USD-denomiated Lebanese government bonds than deposit your money in a Lebanese bank. Better yields and more liquid in case of a crisis.

please where i can read more about it?? and if i go to buy them im guessing "masref lebnen?" dont they also question the source of money? ahhh life is hard :(

To my understanding Lebanese Banks refuse transfers from banks that work with crypto exchanges. So if you transfer the money from a "crypto" bank to a "normal" bank, you will be able to transfer from the "normal" bank to Lebanon correct?

In this case, you can transfer the money to a relative or someone you trust that lives abroad, and then they'll transfer the money to your account in Leb.
Or you can leave Lebanon (student immigration), open a bank account, then transfer the money to Leb.

Another option is Bitcoin ATMs. the closest one is in Cyprus. The drawbacks are high fees, travel cost, and you'll need to get them in 10k USDs at a time... but its fun to do regularly
4 months later
I am thinking in buying bitcoins with my LL and sellign them like 24h later for USD cash, can I do that?
infiniteloop wroteI am thinking in buying bitcoins with my LL and sellign them like 24h later for USD cash, can I do that?
if you pay in lbp all sellers will check the current usd exchange on lebaneselira.org and charge you accordingly. btc is priced against the usd not lbp
Dan28 wrote
infiniteloop wroteI am thinking in buying bitcoins with my LL and sellign them like 24h later for USD cash, can I do that?
if you pay in lbp all sellers will check the current usd exchange on lebaneselira.org and charge you accordingly. btc is priced against the usd not lbp
Lbp is still officially 1510LL /$
Can't you buy online and not from local sellers?
infiniteloop wrote
Dan28 wrote
infiniteloop wroteI am thinking in buying bitcoins with my LL and sellign them like 24h later for USD cash, can I do that?
if you pay in lbp all sellers will check the current usd exchange on lebaneselira.org and charge you accordingly. btc is priced against the usd not lbp
Lbp is still officially 1510LL /$
Can't you buy online and not from local sellers?
lebanese cards are not accepted anywhere, no exchange is even accepting lebanese passports to register, plus all online cards stopped working if you have lbp balance and banks are not converting
how can I buy bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency ) using my LBP debit card?
rcm005 wrotehow can I buy bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency ) using my LBP debit card?
you can’t, check comment above you
a month later
So i have some money stuck in an account in Lebanon and I want to get as much out as I can, in addition to the bi-weekly cash withdraws that I have entrusted a family member to do.
I have a USD credit card and the limits are as follows: Max 200$ a day and 500$ a month.
I was hoping to buy gold with it, but due to the small limit I'd be taking a major hit on a gram-to-gram basis if I'm only buying 2-3 grams, in comparison to a full ounce.
I need a method to "save" my credit card $ into some sort of account or crypto which I can use later on to buy an ounce of gold.
I'm in Canada, so local dealers are not an option for me, everything has to be done online.
I've tried buying crypto on coinbase with my Lebanese CC, but that didn't work.
Anyone has any suggestions? (I'm also open to paypal or anything else that would help me turn my CC balance to real $ in my canadian bank account)

*BIG UPDATE:*

Alright, decided to update this post to help you guys in a similar situation out.

I managed to transform my lollar $ on my lebanese credit card to real $ in my canadian checking account using bitcoin. What I did was as follows:

Check Paxful for lowest offers on giftcards ==> Buy said giftcards with lebanese credit card ==> Exchange giftcards for bitcoin ==> Transfer bitcoin to shakepay app (free open source app for canadians to manage their bitcoin wallets) ==>Sell bitcoin immediately and have it auto-deposited into my checking account on the spot.

Ideally you should have a bank abroad, or you just end stuck holding bitcoin. Best of luck everyone!
2 months later
Hello, sorry to ask but how did you manage to pay with your credit card? Haven't the bank limited / canceled online payments in usd?
5 days later
Hello guys, I would like to ask for your opinion. Is it a good idea to start mining btc now since the USD $ against LBP is up?
I am planning to build a 450 TH/s mining farm and currently searching for a "free" source of power in a mountain village but I am hesitating due to the halving of btc that's going to happen soon and its effect on btc price. Do you think It's a good investment in the current situation?
Mining is currently not the best investment out there due to the inflation rate. If you already own several cards (20+ GTX1060+), and pay electricity in LBP, might be worth a while, but it doesn't mean you can expect an ROI anytime soon if you've just purchased the cards, they will end up degrading before you reach 50% of your costs.

On the other hand, try investing in a coin, learn some technical analysis skills, make some small cash off scalping or try to go for the long run. Don't fall for the scams out there (Pi Coin, Some Alt Coins, useless forks, etc.)

The crypto world is a highly volatile market, and recently introduced marginal trading, so you either go bankrupt or make money really quick due to such volatility :)

Good luck, and stay safe!

Note: OMTs are only distributing LBP, hence making it impossible as of this moment to sell your crypto for USD in the black market.
samer wrote
Geoleb wroteHello guys, I would like to ask for your opinion. Is it a good idea to start mining btc now since the USD $ against LBP is up?
I am planning to build a 450 TH/s mining farm and currently searching for a "free" source of power in a mountain village but I am hesitating due to the halving of btc that's going to happen soon and its effect on btc price. Do you think It's a good investment in the current situation?
Use a mining profitability calculator to project your revenue. This is one example: https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/btc
Divide by two to account for the halving. Note that dividing by two is not necessarily accurate because the hashrate will go down after the halving and your mining pool might yield more, but it's probably a decent heuristic to project whether it is worth investing in a mining rig or not. Also, check this previous discussion from 2017.
Thank you Samer will check it.
Johnaudi wroteMining is currently not the best investment out there due to the inflation rate. If you already own several cards (20+ GTX1060+), and pay electricity in LBP, might be worth a while, but it doesn't mean you can expect an ROI anytime soon if you've just purchased the cards, they will end up degrading before you reach 50% of your costs.

On the other hand, try investing in a coin, learn some technical analysis skills, make some small cash off scalping or try to go for the long run. Don't fall for the scams out there (Pi Coin, Some Alt Coins, useless forks, etc.)

The crypto world is a highly volatile market, and recently introduced marginal trading, so you either go bankrupt or make money really quick due to such volatility :)

Good luck, and stay safe!

Note: OMTs are only distributing LBP, hence making it impossible as of this moment to sell your crypto for USD in the black market.

Thank you John. I won't be using cards, my neighbor who came here from USA couple months ago for medical reasons shipped his mining hardware (ebang) with him to settle here, but due to the current situation he's going back as soon as the airport opens. He's offering me the hardware for really low price (still in shipping boxes didn't use them here yet and used only for 1 year in USA) before he leaves. That's why I was considering it due to the low investment.