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Iran currency smuggling law restricting crypto exchanges

TL;DR

The Iran currency smuggling law is being used to restrict crypto exchanges in the country. This portrays investing in digital assets as risky which has confused the local users. This follows a proposal in parliament that seeks crypto to be classified under the “currency smuggling” legislation.

ArzDigital, a local news outfit has reported that the law will see Iranians dealing in crypto transactions being liable to be jailed or face American sanctions. This gives the Central Bank the mandate to license all crypto exchanges.

The report goes on to add that new and existing exchanges must obtain licenses from the local authorities’ failure to which they will be fined or shut down. This is to ensure that they follow the guidelines set for foreign currency exchanges.

Implementing Iran currency smuggling law not easy

With most crypto exchanges operating from outside the country, implementing the Iran currency smuggling low will not be an easy task. Unlike fiat exchanges that operate locally, most crypto exchanges are based abroad. What’s more, licensing decentralized platforms is not realistic.

Getting a local license is not a problem; the problem is the activities the exchanges conduct that should worry about the regulator. This makes it hard for the Iran currency smuggling law to be effective. The risks are even higher when it comes to decentralization; it is easy to operate from across the borders and still service the Iranian market.

KimgMoney and UtByte are owned by Reza Khelili Dylami a businessman from Iran but are Swedish registered crypto exchanges. These have been classified as scams by having been embraced by Iranians. Though not locally licensed, they have been supporting cross border payments. UtByte has transacted more than $13.8 million with local exchanges as per Chainalysis report.

External pressure to implement Iran currency smuggling law

It is clear that Iran is under pressure from the Trump administration to avoid crypto to evade international sanctions. There are all indications that exchanges will help locals using crypto through exchanges are doing so to circumvent the sanctions. However, it remains to be seen whether locally licensed crypto exchanges will help.

With the restrictions being worked out, marketing crypto projects in Iran buy cross border platforms still continues. TRON’s Justin Sun is still promoting Cryptoland exchange in Iran through the Persian Tron community.

According to Cryptoland co-founder Hassan Golmohammadi, the exchange is based outside the country but has local users. This makes it hard for the Iran currency smuggling law to control local communities according to the editor of CoinIran, a local crypto blog Babak Jalivad; crypto marketing continues to attract local adoption.

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Albert Kim

Albert Kim is a full time tech content developer and writer specializing in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He has been in the tech industry for the last 7 years helping businesses scale up their potential to the next level.

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