This summer, Myanmar’s government-in-exile, the National Unity Government (NUG), unveiled its own cryptocurrency called the Digital Myanmar Kyat (DMMK). The goal was simple: sidestep traditional banking systems controlled by the military junta, which has ruled Myanmar since last February 2021’s coup.
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The newly-launched cryptocurrency is pegged one-to-one with the Myanmar kyat, which has sharply lost its value due to political conflict. It runs on the open-source Stellar network, and has seen more than 50,000 transactions occur so far, resulting in $620,000 in crypto circulating.
To help increase usage, exiled pro-democracy fighters released an accompanying digital mobile wallet called NUGPay, which they said was a vehicle to showcase the “courage, endurance, and resilience” of citizens in “this march to win the revolution.”
But just as quickly, the military stepped in to complicate matters.
The military declared all cellphone payments on unofficial platforms illegal, making NUGPay transactions and the cryptocurrency effectively illegal.
This did not deter activists. From the beginning, the objective of the DMMK has been to wrest back monetary control from the military, which currently controls Myanmar’s central bank. The official announcement for DMMK even said it was designed “to bring about eradication of [the] military dictatorship” and “eliminate dependency on banking systems under the control of the illegal military council.”
It’s important to note that Myanmar’s economic situation is in dire straits: it is increasingly harder to get physical cash notes throughout the country and the government has outlawed foreign currencies for domestic use while also going after the bank accounts of opposition activists.
Of greater concern is how the DMMK project operates: it is highly unusual for the degree of human intermediaries involved. The cryptocurrency network uses volunteer pay agents, who can open accounts for 10 others if the exiled anti-coup activists believe they are legitimately connected to the revolution. This means that anyone deemed to be sympathetic to the military might find it harder to get approval or engage in any crypto transactions on the network.
There are also other concerns: Some activists fear the cryptocurrency offers poor data security and might be vulnerable to attack or infiltration, increasing risks for pro-democracy activists. The NUG is already subject to online surveillance, and their associated cryptocurrency is of no less interest to the military.
It’s equally significant to point out that getting access to the crypto network requires a cellphone number in Myanmar, along with a mobile bank account, not to mention fiat money to connect to NUGPay. One also needs a human to set up an account. All of these could potentially result in military surveillance.
And where is famed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi during this economic turmoil? One pro-crypto group paid homage to her by launching Suu Tokens in her honor, though it’s unclear how she feels about the DMMK project.
At the end of the day, although Myanmar’s crypto movement is rooted in revolution and system overthrow, making it loosely aligned with the original ethos of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it’s not clear how it will move ahead or displace the traditional banking system of the country just yet – but we are watching closely.
This article originally appeared in the Crypto Investor newsletter. Subscribe now.
This summer, Myanmar’s government-in-exile, the National Unity Government (NUG), unveiled its own cryptocurrency called the Digital Myanmar Kyat (DMMK). The goal was simple: sidestep traditional banking systems controlled by the military junta, which has ruled Myanmar since last February 2021’s coup.
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