Iran Crypto Ban in Line With Currency Policies

Iran’s minister of communications and information technology has addressed the recent ban on cryptocurrency trade and efforts by the country to develop its own virtual currency. 
In a talk with IBENA, a news website affiliated with the Central Bank of Iran, published on Friday, ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi linked the recent cryptocurrency trade and promotion ban by the regulator to the country’s ongoing currency issues.
“The ban on trade of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin by CBI as the financial and currency regulator of the country is to prevent the flight of foreign currency under current circumstances of the country,” he said.
On April 22, CBI notified a directive to the banking system which officially forbids all financial institutions, including banks, credit institutions and money exchanges from handling cryptocurrencies.
The ban, originally decided on Dec. 30, 2017 by the High Council of Anti-Money Laundering—an entity independent from CBI which is the official regulator of cryptocurrencies— was communicated because “virtual currencies have the capability of becoming instruments for money laundering and financing terrorism, as well as means of transferring money [in possession] of criminals.”