chepicap.com
US lawmakers have introduced a bill that would look to impose an embargo on Iran creating its own cryptocurrency.
ever since sanctions were placed upon Iran by the US, following the country’s supposed contravention of the 2015 nuclear accord, cryptocurrencies have been a suggested method of bypass for the country.
As part of the sanctions, Iran was removed from SWIFT - the global telecommunications network – restricting Iran’s dealings with financial institutions in other parts of the world.
A workaround for this would be to simply use cryptocurrency in its place.
This didn’t go unnoticed by either Iran's government or people, with the financial crimes enforcement agency, FinCEN, publishing an advisory in October warning of the widespread use of peer to peer crypto exchanges to bypass the imposed sanctions:
“While the use of virtual currency in Iran is comparatively small, virtual currency is an emerging payment system that may provide potential avenues for individuals and entities to evade sanctions,” the advisory said.
Furthermore, Iran’s government had already admitted to working on a national cryptocurrency back in February.
Now US lawmakers have decided to intervene, by creating a piece of law that would block any such attempt at creating a cryptocurrency. The Blocking Iran illicit finance Act along with another bill calling for the monitoring on the development of a sovereign cryptocurrency as well as sanctions against parties who would provide “technological support, used in connection with the development of Iranian digital currency.”
moreover, the bill reads that anyone found to be using the cryptocurrency with being subject to further sanctions, imposed by President Trump himself:
“The President shall impose 5 or more of the sanctions described in section 6(a) of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–172; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note) with respect to any foreign person that the President determines knowingly engages, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, in a significant transaction for the sale, supply, or transfer to Iran of significant goods or services, or technological support, used in connection with the development of Iranian digital currency”
So far, Iran is yet to respond to this development.
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