I received a photo from my friend traveling through Lebanon that made me think a lot about the global economy. He was holding a bundle of banknotes that looked like Monopoly money — more than 50,000 Lebanese pounds, equivalent to about R$ 3. Meanwhile, here we complain about the dollar, there are countries where the population lives with currencies that have simply lost their value.

I've long been researching the cheapest currencies in the world and realized that this is no accident. It’s always a combination of factors that destroy trust: uncontrolled inflation where prices double every month, chronic political instability, economic sanctions cutting the country off from the global financial system, and international reserves at rock bottom.

The Lebanese Pound is practically a symbol of this fragility. Officially, it should be 1,507.5 pounds per dollar, but in the real market, you need more than 90,000. Banks limit withdrawals, and many stores only accept dollars. A journalist told me that in Beirut, Uber drivers ask for payment in dollars because no one wants the pound anymore.

Then there’s the Iranian Rial, destroyed by American sanctions. With R$ 100, you become a millionaire in rials, but of course, this currency is worthless. The interesting thing is that young people there have massively migrated to cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin and Ethereum have become a more reliable store of value than the national currency.

The Vietnamese Dong is a different case. Vietnam has a growing economy, but the dong remains historically weak. You withdraw 1 million dongs at an ATM and get a bundle that looks like money from a TV series. Great for tourists, but for Vietnamese, it means imports become expensive.

There’s also the Laotian Kip, the Uzbek Sum, the Guinean Franc — all reflecting small economies, dependence on imports, or political instability. The Indonesian Rupiah has been among the weakest currencies in the world since 1998, even though Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

And at the bottom of the ranking, we have the Burundian Franc, so weak that people literally carry bags of money for big purchases. Chronic political instability directly reflects on the national currency.

What’s fascinating is realizing that the cheapest currencies in the world are not just financial curiosities. They are clear reflections of how politics, trust, and economic stability are interconnected. For investors, the lesson is: fragile economies pose huge risks, even if the currency seems like an opportunity. But it’s also clear that watching how these currencies collapse helps understand the real effects of inflation, corruption, and instability on people's lives.

It’s interesting to observe how the value of money depends much more on political factors and trust than we usually think. Meanwhile, here in Brazil, we keep monitoring the exchange rate and learning from these stories of currencies that lost everything.