Iran to ban cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency market is now officially banned in Iran. The authorities mention that this financial sphere is closely connected with criminal syndicates and activities, which is a common narrative the regulators all over the world use.

Fiat market observers give a hint about the intentions of Irani government and the reason why they blocked cryptocurrency use at this precise moment: the country’s currency called rial is not at its finest right now and citizens were only making the dynamics worse with their fiat-to-crypto savings conversion. The lack of desire of authorities to create an internal competitor for the fiat currency largely resembles Russia where Bitcoin has good chances not to be used as a means of payment in any foreseeable future.

There were some strange speculations surrounding this country at the end of 2017 when the cryptocurrency market had been experiencing one of its biggest rises by far. In the following months, there were no solid confirmations that Iran actually plans to widen the use of cryptocurrency. On the other hand, the central bank of Iran has explicitly warned of malicious activities in the sphere in November 2017.

Image courtesy of Mohammad Ismail and Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters