Iran Works On its Own Cryptocurrency After Totally Banning Bitcoin

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Iran is one of the countries that is developing its own virtual currency. The information has been releases just days after the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) banned bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The main concerns behind this decision were money laundering and price fluctuations.

Iran Creates Own Cryptocurrency

According to Iran’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister, Mohamad Javad Azari-Jahromi, said that the government ended testing the cryptocurrency and is ready to release it to the market.

Apparently, the virtual currency has been developed with the CBI, Post Bank, and the ICT ministry.

The Minister said:

“Last week, in a joint meeting aimed at exploring the progress of the project, it was announced that the experimental model is ready. The CBI ban on Bitcoin dealings was made out of concerns such as [it could lead to] foreign currency flight and that the volatility in the crypto market] could lead people to lose their assets. But Bitcoin is not the one and only cryptocurrency.”

Other Countries Create their Cryptocurrencies

Iran is not the first country creating its own virtual currency. Russia and Venezuela may be the two most known examples. Russia is developing the so called CryptoRuble, while Venezuela has already launched to the market the virtual currency known as the Petro.

At the moment, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency has been created in order to avoid US and European sanctions. The country is suffering from an important crisis that has ruined the whole economy. With clear violations to human rights, the regime of Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela’s Dictatorship, has received sanctions from western countries, including the European Union and the United States.

The Petro is a national cryptocurrency backed by oil and other natural resources of the country. According to some experts, this is just a non traditional way to avoid the international restrictions.

Iran and Russia may have similar intentions to avoid international sanctions due to different reasons. Cryptocurrencies would allow them to do so by selling coins and gathering money from investors all over the world.

But it is important to mark that the United States has banned its citizens from buying these national cryptocurrencies.

In the case of Iran, there are some questions regarding the Iranian nuclear plan, which may be extended in the next weeks (or not). If sanctions are imposed, then Iran is already prepared to avoid them with its own national virtual currency.

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