Historically (there are multiple instances of fiat currency collapse) is happens very slowly, and then all of a sudden it happens fast. Historical accounts show something like this happens: Moves are made by the government to prevent the use of alternative forms of payment (black markets). They use preventing criminal activity to sell this to the people. Withdrawl and then transaction limits are imposed on accounts. Again in the name of preventing criminal activity. Contagion starts in the inter-bank lending space, where one bank won't lend to another because they don't trust the other bank will be solvent enough to pay back the loan. Central bank steps in to provide the bridging liquidity. This triggers private investment funds and offshore sovereign wealth funds to start moving capital out of that nation. They have to move slowly in order to keep the system stable while they extract their investments. Central banks issue more currency to offset the fleeing capital. Government uses nationalization of key assets as a public good to cover the central bank activities. Foreign investors stop purchasing treasury bonds due to the risk. Bond interest rates rise accordingly. Interest payable on outstanding government debt increases proportionally until it exceeds their ability to make the minimum interest payments. So they default. No foreign country will export to a defaulting nation because the commodities contracts likely won't be honored. This hits the real world in the form of things like fuel and food shortages. Banks impose further transactional limits that impact the ability for business to make payroll. At this point the general public gets uneasy. The leader of the country almost always goes on live TV / radio and announces everything is just fine and this is a temporary situation. 10 days to 2 weeks later the banks close at the end of day Friday, and don't open for business on the Monday. Internet banking is offline over the weekend. On Monday the government announces that all physical currency is no longer valid, that a new currency is being issued and people have x weeks to exchange old for new at some ratio that is in the order of 10:1 or even 100:1. All electronic funds automatically adjust. In countries that have bail-in laws, there is a depositor tax levied on all balances. Between 25 and 50%. World bank typically is the lender of last resort to restart the economy, and the government sells off the previously nationalized assets to private foreign owners at pennies on the dollar. Retail bank deposits are revalued downward, yet retail debt is not. This is how the people get skinned alive.