Why is this the case? I mean buying crypto via a ?local? exchange is possible, but it is not possible to buy a more stable currency. How is the crypto bought, does someone sell it in that local currency? Because if not, you still need zo transfer your currency to (in >90% of cases) USD and then buy crypto. So why not just use those (the same way everybody else does).
If you mean to hold USD-denominated deposits in a local bank, the local government can easily confiscate or convert them. Numerous such examples.
If you mean to hold USD paper notes, that does happen a lot all over the world as you say; and not necessarily legally. Many advantages to digitization (and some disadvantages).
