Recently much of the narrative around the mainstream adoption of crypto has centered on economies with struggling fiat currencies. The Venezuelan bolivar, the Turkish lira and the Iranian rial have of late been the unfortunate front-runners in that race to the bottom. The collapse of fiat currencies, or so the narrative goes, offers an opportunity for crypto to find a real use-case, and a testing ground for real-world adoption. So today’s news that Iran plans to remove its ban on crypto trading is a positive indication for the sector.
Iran’s High Council of Anti-Money Laundering enforced a blanket ban on crypto trading in April of this year. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI), furthermore, acted to prohibit retail banks from processing crypto transactions or promoting the sector. The stated goal was to prevent the collapse of the rial which was facing a fresh struggle in the face of new sanctions imposed by the US government. Bitcoin and the rest, it was argued, offered the possibility of a safe, but completely unregulated, haven away from the struggling currency. But this weekend a spokesman from Iran’s central bank said the government expected to review the ban. Authroties say a new policy is likely to be in place by September, and one which allows both the trading and promotion of crypto.
Iran have given mixed signals regarding digital currencies, and have been one of the many national governments considering the possibility of launching their own coin. The CBI’s Nasser Hakimi recently commented that the national crypto project is still live, and the country’s Informatics Services Corporation has already developed a “test edition” of the coin. Hakimi did concede, however, that to date national cryptocurrencies “haven’t proved successful” and that “prevalent” support from authorities would be required to ensure a successful launch.