Iran and Russia Consider Trading in Crypto To Avoid US Sanctions

In recent news, the head of the Iranian Parliamentary Commission for Economic Affairs, Mohammed Reza Pourebrahimi, noted that the cryptocurrency world could be beneficial for both Iran in Russia. The comments are in reference to the ability to avoid using US dollars for their transactions, which would be performed after the potential replacement of their current payment system, called SWIFT.

Pourebrahimi’s comments come after a meeting with Dmitry Mezentsev, who holds a chair position at the Federal Council Committee on Economic Policy. He also said that they’ve “engaged the Central Bank of Iran to start developing proposals for the use of cryptocurrency.” Continuing on, he said that he’s also reached out about this topic of discussion in the day before, during which time they’ve have agreed upon cooperation from Russia.

According to Pourebrahimi, “They [Russia] share our opinion. We said that if we manage to move this work forward, then we will be the first countries that use cryptocurrency in the exchange of goods.”

In response, Mezentsev holds the relationship with their banks to be “of great importance,” especially considering the international sanctions that presently impact Russia and Iran together. There is a future meeting planned in reference to these adjustments, which will be on July 5^th, 2018 in Tehran. Unfortunately, in the time without the international banking system, there’s already been over $2.5 billion that has left the country in crypto transactions.

These transactions are greatly concerning for other countries as well. Venezuela is one of the other countries that is at risk, responding by creating an oil-supported cryptocurrency called the Petro. Unfortunately, this new cryptocurrency was seen as many as an illegal move in the effort to get into the international market. Once the token launched, Turkey and Iran became more interested in making crypto tokens that work within their country.

At the present time, Russia’s CryptoRuble will soon be launching in the middle of next year.