Iran Banned Banks from Dealing with Bitcoin and Altcoins

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has banned banks from interacting with Bitcoin and altcoins. The main objectives are to protect the country’s financial ecosystem and its citizens from fraud incidents.

The reasons why the CBI made this decision are to avoid money laundering, identity theft and the promotion of terrorism. The Central Bank of Iran has made the announcement on Sunday, April 22, 2018. According to it, all financial institutions are restricted in the use of cryptocurrency.

“Virtual currencies have the option to be used for money laundering, supporting terrorism, and exchange of sums between wrongdoers,” according to the publication.

Banks and other financial institutions, including the crypto trading platforms, are forced to avoid trading assets, as well as to support them.

However, we can’t say with certainty the extent to which the Central Bank will be able to forbid the use of cryptocurrency, given that technology has evolved enormously and the support is visible from several officials.

This decision comes in contradiction with the announcement made by the Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister in February 2018. That month, the department announced that it will launch the country’s own cryptocurrency, which will be supervised and subordinated to the state government.

Additionally, the announcement comes in contradiction with the decision made public in November 2017, when the Secretary of Iranian Cyberspace Authority welcomed Bitcoin. However, since November, there have been occurred a lot of changes. Cryptocurrencies have been involved in numerous cybercriminal attacks, identity theft, and money laundering.