Iran has developed an experimental local cryptocurrency “to facilitate financial transactions,” Iran Front Page reports.
The news comes days after the country’s central bank prohibited local banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies due to concerns about money-laundering.
“The central bank’s ban does not mean the prohibition or restriction of the use of the digital currency in domestic development,” Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said.
“Last week, at a joint meeting to review the progress of the local cryptocurrency project, it was announced that the experimental model was ready,” Azari-Jahromi added.
Addressing claims that his country’s government is using digital currency technology to defeat existing financial sanctions, the minister said “All cryptocurrencies are capable of circumventing sanctions because they are not under supervision of the US financial regulatory body, and the national digital currencies are naturally capable of this.”
By Siranush Ghazanchyan