Yesterday a friend sent me a photo of Beirut and I was impressed.

He was holding a bundle of banknotes that looked like Monopoly money, like actual game pieces.
More than 50,000 Lebanese pounds, which is about R$ 3.00.
That made me think: while we complain about the dollar here, some countries' populations live with currencies that have simply turned into paper.
And the Brazilian real?
It closed 2024 as the worst currency in the world among the main ones, depreciating 21.52%.
But that's nothing compared to some cheaper currencies than the real that I will show here.

In 2025, a very complicated scenario unfolded: persistent inflation, political crises, economic instability.
It turned some currencies into symbols of fragility.
But why does a currency devalue so much?
It's always the same story: uncontrolled inflation, chronic political instability, economic sanctions, lack of international reserves.
When the Central Bank doesn't have enough dollars to defend the currency, it crashes.
And when even the citizens prefer to hold informal dollars instead of the local currency, you know it's critical.

I'll show the ranking of the cheapest currencies compared to the real in 2025, because it's interesting to see how this works in practice.

The Lebanese Pound is the absolute champion.
Officially, it should be 1,507.5 pounds per dollar, but since the 2020 crisis, that doesn't exist in the real world.
In the black market, you need more than 90,000 pounds to buy 1 dollar.
Banks limit withdrawals, stores only accept dollars.
A journalist told me that in Beirut, Uber drivers ask for payment in dollars because no one wants Lebanese pounds anymore.

The Iranian Rial is another story.
American sanctions turned this into a third-world currency.
With R$ 100, you become a millionaire in rials.
The government tries to control the exchange rate, but the reality on the streets is different.
There are several parallel quotations.
The most interesting thing is that young Iranians are migrating to cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin and Ethereum have become a more reliable store of value than the national currency itself.

The Vietnamese Dong is a different case.
Vietnam has a growing economy, but the dong remains historically weak due to monetary policy.
You withdraw 1 million dongs at an ATM and get an amount worthy of a crime series.
It's great for tourists—US$ 50 makes you feel like a millionaire.
But for Vietnamese, it means imports become expensive.

Then there's the Laotian Kip, which is weak because Laos has a small economy and depends on imports.
At the border with Thailand, many merchants prefer to accept Thai baht.
The Indonesian Rupiah has also been historically weak since 1998, but for those traveling to Bali, it's super cheap.
With R$ 200 a day, you live like a king.

Uzbek Som, Guinean Franc, Paraguayan Guarani, Malagasy Ariary, Burundian Franc.
All these currencies cheaper than the real share the same origin: political instability, corruption, lack of confidence in the system.
Madagascar is one of the poorest nations in the world, Burundi has chronic political instability that directly reflects on the currency.

What does all this mean?
A weak currency is never an accident.
It's always the result of a combination of factors that destroy confidence.
For Brazilian investors, here are some lessons: fragile economies pose huge risks, cheap currencies may seem like opportunities, but most of these countries are experiencing deep crises.
Now, tourism opportunities do exist—destinations with devalued currencies become financially advantageous for those arriving with dollars or euros.

Watching how these currencies plummet helps understand the real effects of inflation, corruption, and instability on people's lives.
Paying attention to these factors is a way to see the importance of trust, stability, and good governance for any economy.
Investing is a continuous process of economic and social learning.