Central Bank of Iran: Cryptocurrency Rial Will Soon Be Available to Everyone

The Central Bank of Iran's public relations department announced on Thursday, February 27, that a new payment currency called the Rial cryptocurrency will be made publicly available "soon."

The Sharq newspaper on Thursday quoted the Central Bank as saying: "Cryptocurrency is another form of banknote that is made available to the public in a completely digital form."

Mehran Mohramian, Deputy Director of New Technology at the Central Bank, had previously announced on January 17 the implementation of the "trial" of the cryptocurrency, saying that this digital currency was designed to resolve the contradiction between "decentralization of cryptocurrencies" and "sovereignty of countries' currencies" and in accordance with the opinion of the Leader of the Islamic Republic.

In May 2018, the Central Bank of Iran banned the purchase and sale of Bitcoin in Iran and announced that, given that "the nature of virtual currencies turns these currencies into a tool for money laundering, financing terrorism, and generally transferring money between criminals, a ban has been issued to banks on the use of these currencies."

However, some Iranian officials and members of parliament have publicly stated in recent years that cryptocurrencies are an effective tool for circumventing sanctions. For example, Gholamreza Marhaba, spokesman for the parliament's economic commission, said in late September of this year, referring to the annual mining of "$1.1 billion in cryptocurrencies in Iran," that "we cannot be indifferent and unplanned to using this capacity to circumvent sanctions."

The Central Bank of Iran has not yet published any details about the cryptocurrency, its mechanism, its convertibility into other currencies, and its final price.

Arash Ghanbarzadeh, a cryptocurrency market expert, had previously said in an interview with "Eqtisad Online" that "given that the national cryptocurrency is under the supervision of the central bank and is completely centralized, it does not have the decentralized nature of digital currencies" and "it will most likely not be mineable."

Mr. Ghanbarzadeh added that "for people who are interested in digital currencies, a national cryptocurrency may not be an attractive option. But for the government, in order to circumvent sanctions, it is a solution they have thought of."

Source: Radio Farda