Countries from different parts of the world are constantly looking for ways to join the international community via investments and trade transactions. Iran which has been a country of controversy in times past, has some key members who are interested in emerging technologies like cryptocurrency, as they believe it will help the country wade through the present sanctions.
Iran Wants Crypto
According to a report by Coinit.ir, the commander of an arm of the Iranian Armed Forces, “Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution”, Saeed Muhammad was of the opinion that Iran should begin to consider other options such as cryptocurrency in order to help with international investments, regardless of the nation’s travails with the heavy sanctions. According to the General, the country is demanding that a sophisticated, efficient and effective mechanism in the form of an exchange system be created such that the sanctions will be bypassed. Explaining further, he said that solutions need to be developed that will facilitate this commodities exchange system, and the right option would be the use of cryptocurrencies, as it will boost the country’s partnership with other countries.
Iran Cryptocurrency Sanctions
It is no news that Iran has been in the spotlight of U.S. sanctions, and interestingly, some residents and leaders have been placed on the individual sanctions list (Specially-Designated Nationals) set up by the U.S. Treasury Department of Foreign Asset Control. The purpose of designing sanctions is to put a country or nation in a position where they are shut off from the world’s financial system, and thus making it impossible for other countries to trade with the sanctioned country, and also prevents investments from international investors.
It may interest you to know that when crypto addresses began to get sanctioned, the first set of crypto addresses that got affected were owned by Iranians. In a recent development, the agency responsible for creating standards used in the fight against global financial crime, the Financial Action Task Force, made Iran appear on its blacklist because Iran failed to comply with the requirements for anti-terrorism financing. Iran has been hatching out a plan that would facilitate a mainstream use of cryptocurrencies, and there are indications that the country’s government was partnering with some blockchain startups in order to bring some upgrade to its financial structure. Some of the blockchain-based projects got the support of private banks, and the government at some point provided funding to some companies.
There have been speculations for a while about Iran looking for ways to circumvent the sanctions imposed on the country by the US, but the country was doing all it could to ensure that the evasion was formal, and as such was trying not to get the central bank involved in any financial project so as to avoid raising suspicions. Will Iran pull through with this move to get cryptocurrency involved despite the sanctions the country is still dealing with? It will be interesting to see what exactly the Iranians have up their sleeve to bypass sanctions.