Some interesting crypto news broke this week. Apparently Iran has changed its laws to allow cryptocurrency to be used for purchasing imports.
According to Decrypt (a pretty reliable crypto news outlet), crypto miners will have to sell coins directly to Iran’s Central Bank (CBI).
The edict, put forth by the Ministry of Energy and Central Bank of Iran (CBI), requires the country’s legally registered cryptocurrency miners to sell the tokens they mine to CBI. The country, which has watched its foreign reserves dwindle by over 33% in two years, has increasingly eyed Bitcoin as a workaround to crippling US sanctions.
Why is Iran doing this? Three big reasons.
- The country has been devastated by sanctions from the U.S. and other countries.
- It’s running out of foreign reserves.
- It desperately needs a reliable way to buy stuff from other countries.
Mining cryptocurrency had been illegal in Iran. But that changed in August 2019. Apparently necessity is the mother of invention.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this good or bad news. It’s both. It gives the U.S. and other countries another reason to oppose bitcoin and other cryptos. But it also demonstrates the world’s need for neutral, decentralized currencies.
We’ll keep an eye on this story and let you know if anything interesting develops.