Ali Salehabadi, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in a statement given to a local media has said that the crypto trade or investment is banned. However, the authorized entities and individuals can mine crypto in order to do international settlements.
The Central Bank of Iran chief explained that Iranian companies are legally allowed to make payments for imports in cryptocurrencies. The chief backed his statement by giving reference to the regulations adopted by the other government institutions such as the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. This statement was quoted in a report by the English-language edition of the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on Friday.
Alireza Peymanpak, Deputy Minister of Trade, that Iran has paid in cryptocurrencies for the first time for an import. Following this announcement, Salehabadi shared his remarks. The government official also disclosed that the Islamic Republic has purchased goods worth $10 million using digital coins.
But Iranian authorities do not intend to make crypto payments legal in Iran. Reza Bagheri Asl, Deputy Minister of Communications, through a statement killed any possibility of that. The government is also not supportive of crypto investing or trading. Only money changers and banks have the rights to pay for imports with cryptocurrencies mined in Iran.
Several enterprises were issued licenses to mint cryptoassests such as Bitcoin when authorities in Tehran announced crypto mining as a legal activity in 2019. However the activity then started receiving a fair share of criticism due to rising electricity shortage incidents and blackouts around the country especially in summers.
If we look at the last two years, due to this, registered crypto farms were ordered to stop operating their highly power consuming equipment more than once. Illegal miners and their underground crypto farms were exposed by the Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Company.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/08/14/central-bank-governor-reminded-crypto-trading-or-investing-not-legal-in-iran/