Bitcoin Forum

Iran’s central bank has banned the country’s banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, for money laundering issues, the state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday as the country tries to stop a currency crisis. The supreme committee of the CBI, also in charge of money laundering control and fight against capital flight in Iran,

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This is normal, I think it is not just happening in Iran but all over the world. In some other countries, it is occurring but it just is not being reported. Not being reported and not knowing doesn't mean it is not happening. The reason is plain and simple for the banks. They see cryptocurrencies as a competition. A lot of big banks has made a lot of efforts to bring down crypto and even had their spokes persons create black propaganda to prevent people to use cryptocurrencies. They're doing everything in their power to retain the status quo.

It's not necessarily the competition aspect that's doing it, but more the outflow of capital from Iran to other countries where most exchanges and services have their bank accounts. Theoretically, the general way of thinking is that capital flows out of the country, where people lose buying power due to the shortage of fiat, don't have any buffers to fall back on, etc. Instead of people buying crypto, they could have bought stocks or real estate or whatever other investment in Iran. By prohibiting financial institutions from dealing with crypto currencies, they think to have found a way to combat capital outflow. But then again, these actions lead to more active local peer to peer transactions, which they have zero control over.

I find it quite embarrassing to see how governments do that to themselves. I get it that they put confidence in their own sanctions against crypto, but they should have known how these sanctions have an opposite effect.

Every country where either the government or central bank announced similar sanctions, people directly found out that P2P markets are actually a better and more private form of conducting transactions.

It's less convenient than what exchanges allow you to do, but it's clear that people are well willing to take an alternative route to do what they should be allowed to do by default. What will governments do next, ban cash?

It's impossible to stop crypto and that shouldn't even be a thing. Instead, if banks actually care about capital being taken out of the country, let them set up their own exchanges so people don't need to use foreign exchanges.

Iran is struggling with their own currency so they don't want to add in the crisis anymore by banning cryptocurrencies because as what you said to combat capital outflow. They are planning to make their own cryptocurrency as well because of what Venezuela had done by referring to this news https://cointelegraph.com/news/turkey-iran-to-release-state-backed-cryptocurrencies-on-heels-of-venezuelas-petro

We are yet to see what will be the effect of them having their own digital currency because even if it is crypto, it is still centralized so I think some people with still deal with cryptocurrencies by having peer to peer transactions even if there is a risk of them getting caught.

only to be expected,Iran is practically,in the state of pre-war
due to the situation in Syria and the constant local fights with Israel and the US
during these times you want full control over your finances and the measures are reasonable
at least they didn't go as far as in Venezuela to criminalize the crypta usage
I hope the measures are temporary,sooner or later they will have to lift the ban

Israel, on the other hand, is in exactly the same pre-war condition. However, in Israel it is allowed to work with cryptocurrencies, which in accordance with the law were recognized as digital assets.

the only difference is that Israel wasn't under sanctions for a long period of time as Iran has been
also the US support Israel and consider them one of the allies in the area
while we all know what they call Iran,stopping short of calling them a rogue state

I would like to know how many cases of money laundering have been reported in Iran, if they are taking these measures would be very interesting that they show us how many cases of money laundering were reported in Iran, here it seems that they are using money laundering as an argument, about of capital flight, this is a political subject, because they are afraid of new sanctions so they are already taking action. if they were a country without conflicts, then it would not be necessary to take those measures that they are taking. Is unbelievable how power is divided in Iran, it seems that ademocracy is not exist in this country. well, we can say that bitcoin is very well not being in a country like Iran



 

I don't understand what these Asian countries are getting by banning the payment gateways. First, India and now Iran. This instead of helping in countering the money laundering will help in increasing it. People will try to find under the table ways to trade cryptocurrencies. Since, there isn't any ban on the cryptocurrencies itself, people can go for P2P trades which will be more anonymous and hence, can lead to illegal activities. Atleast through banks, they had access to the details of the traders.

Although the cryptocurrency can be a salvation for the financial system of Iran, Iran in every way wants to limit it.
As for the ban on financial institutions, this step is not understood at all. If banks work with cryptocurrency, they control the turnover of the cryptocurrency. That is, on the contrary, money laundering in this case is under control.