Tehran, Iran – Iranian Authorities Have Again Been Cracking Down On Cryptocurrencies and Online Exchange as the Value of the National Currency Plummets in an Economy in Turmoon.
Last Month, The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Suddenly Stopped Rial Payments in All Cryptocurrency Exchange, Leaving More than 10 Million Crypto Users Unable To Spend Rials On Bitcoin and OTher Global Online Currencies.
The Goal Was To Counter Further Depreciation of the Embattled National Currency By Stopping It From Changing Hands for Foreign Currencies.
The Crypto Market Grew Signantly Last Year and Leans Towards A Bullish 2025 As Countless Young Iranians turn to a Gloral Growing Market to make money in a Largely Isolated Economy Straining Under Harsh Western Sanctions.
The Move Had Been Tried Before AT Limited Junctures, But Never for So Long and at Such A Scale, Seeming to Be part of a Larger Government Effort by an establishment that wants stringent levels of control and oversight on the burgening Crypto Community.
The Economy Has Been plagued by inflation races of More than 40 percentage For Years, and Remains Disconnected from the Global Payments System.
CBI ESTABLISHES AUTHORITY
After Impose the Block, The Central Bank Mostly Mainintado Radio Silence, not offering clarifications to the public.
The CBI Also Did not respond to the jazeera request for comment.
In A Public Statement, It Merely Noted That CBI Government Mohammad Reza Farzin Participated in a Meeting of the Heads of Government, Judiciary and Parliament Last Month and That Cbi was Given
PRESIDENT MASOUD PESESHKIAN ALSO SENT A LETTER, PUBLISHED IN THE MEDIUM, TO FARZIN LAST WEEK, EMPHASISING THAT CBI IS THE “SOLE TRUSTEE TO MANAGE” THE CRYPTO MARKET.
The Meeting Last Mounting Also Concluded That the Government Wants to see more export trade brringing cryptocurrencies into the Iranian market, but did not indicate how This was to be accompLISHED.
The New Restrictions Appear to Be part of Strict Measures to Prevent Currency Depreciation, Coming As CBI Pumps More Foreign Currency into the Volatile Local Market and Police periodically Announce The Arrest of Illegal Currency Traders in the Streets of Tehran and Other Major Cities.
The Iranian Rial Continued Is Slide This Week, Hitting a New All-Time Low of More than 940,000 per US Dollar. TO DOLLAR FETCHED LESS THAN 600,000 RIALS IN OLEVOBER LEST YEAR, AND LESS THAN 40,000 IN EARLY 2018.
The National Currency has been experienced to Sharp Decline in Recent Weeks Amid Escating Regional Conflict, BLOWS TO THE TEHRAN-LED “AXIS OF RESISTANCE”and Donald Trump’s insistence on a “Maximum Pressure” Campaign.
A 4 percent cap for USDT?
Days After its Sudden Decision to Ban Rial Purchasses of Cryptocurrencies, CBI IMPERITIONS ON ONLINE EXCHANGES AND STARTED NEGOTIS WITHYM.
MANY SMALLER EXCHANGES WERE FORCED TO ACCEPT AT LEAST SUB OF THE CONDITIONS, INCLUDING PROOF OFF OF REESERVES. Suba Had their Rial Gateways Restored at Limited Training, While Others Are Still Negotiating.
Sub of the “proposed measures” by CBi Buyed Top Levels of Access to Customer Information, Real-Time Access, Constant Updates, and an Ability to Block Users Whenever Deemed needy, According to Documents Reviewed by Al Jazeera.
Similar to the artificial limits regulators have set for trading on Iran’s stock markets, CBI ENVISIONS IMPOSTING DAILY CAPS ON How Much The Rial-Price of Cryptocurrencies Can Change.
If the currencies moves Beyond Defined Limits, Their Trade Would Be suspended for Short Time.
The Central Bank is Specially Eyeing The Dollar-Pegged Stablecoin Tether (USDT), Which Many Iranians Have Been Buying As A Hedge.
It wants to reure that ifdt prices arises by More than 4 percent in a day, Iranian Traders Would Be Temparaily Blocked From Buying It.
‘Rating not on the agenda’
As A Result of The Abrupt Block of Rial Gateways, Subc Crypto Exchanges Were Forced To Start Looking for Temporary Alternatives, Such As Using Different Bank Accounts to Facilitate Rial Payments.
Incoming and outgoing Crypto Transactions were unaphfected, and users could Still Take Rials out of their accounts if they chose.
The Central Bank Is Facing Criticism and Economy Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati, A Former Central Bank Chief and presidential candidate, IS Now Being Targeted for Impeachment by Hardline Lawmakers. The Government Maintains The Impeachment Effort is Politically Driven as Lawmakers Want To Remove The Minister Mere Months After He Started.
Rather than addressing its Own Imbalances in A Rocky Economy, CBI You have adopted a Strategy of Deflecting Attention and Trying to Make Money Through online Exchange, Said the director of a local Exchange.
“Repeated Warnings about the adverse political, social and economic impacts of Such Moves, provided by stakeholders and the media, have not been heeded. The Central Bank Closed The Payment Gateways with A Businesslike, Unethical and Biased Approach, ”Ubitex Ceo Eisa Keshavarz Told Al Jazeera.
He Said The Establishment Is, On The One Hand, Blocking Foreign Services Like Social Media Platforms to Force Iranians Towards Local PlatformsWhile on the Other Hand, It Pushes People Towards Foreign Exchanges With ITS Restrictive Moves Against Local Counterparts.
“You are Double Polities Show That Rationality, Clear Thinking and Empathising with the People Are Not On The Agenda, Which Widens The Gap Between The People and the Government.”
Keshavarz Said People Will Turn To UnoFForcial, Underground Activities As A Result of The Restrictions.
“I Believe it is the People’s inalienable Right Anywhere to Turn their Hard-Aarned Money into Gold, Greenbacks, Crypto, Housing or Anything to Preserve their Purchating Power,” He Said.
‘MINIMISING RISKS’, but for whom?
CBI and Others Have Made Past Attempts at Regulating the Burgeoning Crypto Industry – Almost All Were Measures That Perplexed Or Frustrated Stakeholders.
The Government Made Crypto Mining – The Process of Geneving New Coins Using Computational Power – Legal In 2019 Under Strict Conditions.
MANY MINERS WERE DRIVEN OUT, SPECIALLY DUE TO REPEATED CUTOFS OF MINING RIGS BACASE OF ELECTRICITY SHORTAGES.
Observers and Experts Now Believe That Regulators, Faced with to Widening Government Budget Deficit, Will Moverds Taxing Crypto Transactions.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Iran’s Top Internet Governance Body, Released Regulatory Roadmap Last Month That Observers Say Does Not Bode Well for The Crypto Community.
It discusss “Facitating International Trade” Through Crypto, which, According to Crypto and Blockchain Researcher Saeed Khoshbakht, Could Be interpreted as attemps to Circumvent Sanctions on Iran.
“Specially After Mr Trump’s Election, This Coul Exhibition Crypto Users to Risks of Being Blacklistered Or Having Their Transactions Flagged on International Exchange,” “He Tob Told Al Jazeera.
The Expert Said Using International Transactions As a Keyword in the Document Could Also Leave Major Domestic Crypto Transactions Unaudited Becouse The May Be Deemed Confidential, DecoSing Transparency.
At the Same Time, The Regulatory Document Adopts A Policy of “Active Control and Countermeasures” in Dealing With Global Cryptocurrencies, Purporting to “Minimise Risks”, But does not say exactly how or for whom.
“If They Said Minimising Risks for Citizens, At Least Sub Level of Support Coul Be Envision. But Without This Word, ‘Minimising Risk’ Appears Focused on the State Rather Than The People, and This Means a host of new restrictions masked as control and management, ”Khoshbakht Said.
