Is it safe to buy crypto in Georgia? The scams to know and how to avoid them

Crypto in Georgia is regulated, popular and mostly uneventful. Since 1 January 2023 every business that exchanges, transfers or holds crypto for customers must be registered with the National Bank of Georgia, and the register now lists 43 providers. People buy USDT at mall ATMs, sell it through TBC and Bank of Georgia transfers, and fund apartment purchases by converting through registered exchanges.

Scammers work in the gaps around that system. They run desks that never registered, pose as buyers on P2P markets, invite you to a cash meeting, sell you “Pi” that does not exist, or simply trick you into signing away your wallet. This guide walks through the scams that actually circulate in Georgia, how to recognise each one, and what to do if it has already happened to you.

Is it safe to buy crypto in Georgia?

The short answer: yes, if you stay inside the regulated system and keep your own keys. The NBGNBGNational Bank of Georgia — the central bank. It supervises banks and, since 2023, crypto service providers (VASPs). registers and supervises VASPsVASPVirtual Asset Service Provider — a crypto exchange, ATM operator or custodian. In Georgia every VASP must be registered with the National Bank (NBG). for anti-money-laundering compliance, has fined providers for breaches, and cancels registrations. From September 2026 it also introduced minimum capital and risk-management rules, which existing providers must meet by 2027. That is real oversight. You can read how it works in our guide to crypto regulation in Georgia.

What registration does not do is guarantee your money. Crypto is not legal tender, we know of no deposit-insurance scheme that covers coins held on an exchange, and a registered provider can still freeze your account while it checks a suspicious transfer. And most importantly, registration protects nothing that happens outside the registered provider: a P2P trade with a stranger, a cash meeting, a wallet app you downloaded from a link, a Telegram “mentor”.

So the safety model is simple. Use a provider from the register for anything involving lari, dollars or cash. Keep larger holdings in a wallet you control, as our wallet guide explains. Treat everything else as risky until proven otherwise.

Unregistered providers and how to check a company

On 7 October 2025 the NBG publicly urged citizens not to use unregistered virtual asset service providers, including those operating in free industrial zones, which also need NBG registration. The NBG said it forwards suspected crimes to law enforcement. In May 2026 it added that three Georgian companies sanctioned by the UK had operated without registration and were never under its supervision.

Registration is not permanent either. Sher888 LLC, trading as “Sherif crypto exchange”, was registered in May 2024 as number 0009-9404. The NBG fined it GEL 465,000 for anti-money-laundering breaches, including GEL 264,000 for 528 transactions without proper record-keeping, and the register now lists its registration as cancelled.

Since 1 January 2026 every registered provider must display the NBG act confirming its registration at its head office, branches and kiosks, and on its website and app. That gives you a two-minute check:

Banks, microbanks, microfinance organisations and brokerage companies may offer some crypto services under their own licences without separate VASP registration, which is how bank apps such as TBC’s in-app crypto fit in. Our page on banks and crypto in Georgia covers them.

P2P scams: fake receipts, chargebacks and triangle fraud

P2PP2PPeer-to-peer: you buy crypto from another person and pay them directly (e.g. by TBC or Bank of Georgia transfer) while the platform holds their coins in escrow. trading in lari is popular because it is cheap and fast. On Binance, Bybit and OKX, buyers and sellers pay each other through Bank of Georgia, TBC, Credo or Liberty transfers while the platform holds the coins in escrowEscrowThe platform locks the seller's coins until the seller confirms your payment arrived, so neither side can simply walk away with the money.. The escrow protects the crypto side. It does not protect the bank side, and that is where the three classic scams live.

Fake receipts. The buyer clicks “paid” and sends a screenshot of a transfer that was edited or never sent. If you release the USDT based on the image, the coins are gone. The rule is absolute: check your own banking app and release only when the money is there.

Chargebacks and reversals. The buyer really pays you, then asks their bank to reverse the payment or claims it was unauthorised. You have released the crypto; the lari leaves your account again. Local guides report that Georgian banks can question or freeze accounts that receive P2P transfers from strangers, so a disputed payment can also lock your account.

Triangle fraud. This is the one that catches careful people. A scammer sells something, for example a phone on an online marketplace, to an innocent victim. They then open a P2P order to buy your USDT and give the victim your bank details as “the seller’s account”. The victim pays you, you see real money from a real person and release the coins to the scammer. When the victim never receives the phone, they report fraud, and the police and bank trace the money to you.

Fake OTC desks and cash meetings

For larger amounts, many people in Tbilisi and Batumi swap USDT for dollars in cash. Done at a registered office, this is routine; our guide to OTC desks and exchange offices lists how they work. Done with a stranger from a chat, it is one of the riskiest things you can do with crypto in Georgia.

The patterns are well known. The “trader” suggests meeting in a car, a café or an apartment instead of an office. They ask you to send the USDT first “because the cash is counted”. The bundle contains fakes or paper. Or the rate is so good that you skip your usual checks. Search results for Tbilisi cash exchange are full of programmatic listings and Russian-language directories that do not show whether a desk is registered, and some promise “anonymity”, which no registered provider may offer.

Pi Network scams

Pi Network holders are prime targets everywhere, Georgia included, because Pi is hard to sell and many owners are new to crypto. A few facts help you see through almost every Pi offer.

There is no Pi market in lari. Cryptomat machines handle only BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH and USDT, and Cryptal’s asset list has no PI. Pi Network publishes an official KYB list of 12 businesses (Kraken, OKX, Bitget, Gate, Pionex, Onramp.money, Onramper, Zypto, LBank, TransFi, MEXC and Banxa) and tells Pioneers to be extremely cautious with anyone not on it. No Georgian exchange or office is on the list.

That makes the following offers suspect by definition:

• Fake buyers in Telegram or Facebook groups who offer far above the market price, then ask for your 24-word passphrase, a “verification” transfer or a fee to “unlock” the deal.
• Pi for cash or lari deals with individuals, where the buyer sends a fake bank screenshot after receiving your Pi.
• A “Pi exchange” website or app that is not on the KYB list, often with a look-alike domain.
• “Pre-listed” Pi or IOUs sold before you can actually move coins.

Pi’s own safety page says to enter your Pi Wallet passphrase only in the official Pi app. Anyone who asks for it, under any pretext, is stealing your wallet. Our Pi Coin page explains the legitimate route: move Pi to a KYB-listed exchange, sell for USDT, then sell USDT for lari.

USDT address freezes and tainted coins

StablecoinsStablecoinA token designed to track a currency, usually the US dollar. USDT and USDC aim to stay worth $1. have a risk that Bitcoin does not. Tether’s terms allow it to freeze USDT held at an address, blacklist addresses, and act when directed by a government or law enforcement. If USDT that passed through a hacked, scammed or sanctioned wallet lands at your address, your balance can be frozen with no notice. It is the issuer, not the exchange, that controls this.

That matters in Georgia because large USDT deals for apartments and cars often happen through OTC contacts. The US Treasury re-designated the Russian exchange Garantex and its successor Grinex in August 2025; coins from such sources can contaminate everything downstream. Cheap USDT from an unknown seller is cheap for a reason.

Protect yourself by receiving USDT only from registered providers or counterparties you can identify, sending a small test first, and keeping the transaction records. Also know which network you use: BEP-20 USDT on BNB Chain is a bridged token backed by Binance, not issued by Tether directly. Our USDT guide covers the networks.

Fake apps, wallet drainers, SIM swaps and Telegram “signals”

Fake apps and look-alike sites. Clones of wallet, exchange and Pi apps appear in ad results and in links sent by “support”. Install apps only from the link on the provider’s own site, type exchange addresses yourself, and remember that genuine support never asks for your seed phraseSeed phrase12 or 24 words that restore your wallet on any device. Whoever has them owns the coins — never type them into a website or send a photo of them.. Ledger’s own site states plainly that it will never ask for your 24 words. Buy hardware wallets only from the manufacturer’s official store, not second-hand on local classifieds, because a tampered device can come pre-loaded with a seed the seller knows.

Airdrops and wallet drainers. A “free token” or airdropAirdropFree tokens distributed to wallets by a project. Many "airdrop" messages are scams asking you to connect a wallet. link asks you to connect your wallet and sign a message. The signature is actually a permission to move your tokens, and a drainer script empties the wallet. Use a separate wallet with small balances for anything experimental, and never sign a transaction you do not understand.

SIM swaps. If your exchange or email recovery depends on SMS, someone who convinces a mobile operator to move your number to a new SIM can reset your passwords. Use an authenticator app or a hardware key for two-factor login on every exchange and email account, and set a PIN with your mobile operator if it offers one.

Telegram “signals” and mentors. Groups promising guaranteed daily returns, copy-trading “mentors”, cloud-mining contracts and investment platforms with a dashboard that only shows profits are a classic way for beginners to lose larger sums, and they circulate in Georgian-, Russian- and English-language chats alike. The giveaway is always the same: you can deposit easily, but withdrawing requires a “tax”, a “fee” or a bigger deposit. If you are curious about mining itself, read our honest page on crypto mining in Georgia first.

What to do if you have been scammed

Speed matters, because exchanges and issuers can sometimes freeze funds while they are still in transit. Do these in order, on the same day if possible.

Most crypto in Georgia changes hands without drama. Keep to registered providers, read the name on every bank transfer, never send first to a stranger, and treat your seed phrase like the keys to your apartment. If you are new to the country, our guide for expats and tourists adds the local context, and our cash-out guide shows the safest ways to turn crypto into lari.