- The economy has been troubled by inflation rates of over 40% for years, and is still not connected to the global payments system.
- This week, the rial of Iran carried on to slump, striking a new all-time low of over 940,000 per US dollar.
- After implementing the block, the central bank mainly continued to have no communication, not providing any clarification to the people.
The officials of Iran have again been hitting on cryptocurrencies as well as online exchanges as the worth of the national currency falls in an economy in tension. In January 2025, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) put a break on rial payments over all crypto exchanges all of a sudden.
The step left over 10 million crypto users being not able to spend rials on BTC and other virtual assets. The target was to fight further depreciation of the national currency by putting a stop from exchanging for foreign currencies.
The crypto market skyrocketed notably in 2024 and inclines towards a bullish 2025 as many youngsters of Iran look to an increasing global market to make money in a big isolated economy struggling under strict Western sanctions.
The measure has been tried so far at restricted points, but never for a long time and at such a massive scale, looking to be part of a bigger governance effort by an organization that wishes strict levels of control and supervision on the rapidly growing crypto community.
Troubled economy by inflation rates
The economy has been troubled by inflation rates of over 40% for years, and is still not connected to the global payments system. After implementing the block, the central bank mainly continued to have no communication, not providing any clarification to the people. On the matter, CBI also chose to remain silent.
The public statement mentioned that the governor of CBI, Mohammad Reza Farin joined the meeting of the heads of government, judiciary and parliament in January 2025 and that CBI was given complete authority to control and oversee the crypto market at the time of the meeting.
The last month’s meeting also mentioned that the government wishes to witness more export trade taking cryptocurrencies into the Iranian market, but did not show how this was to be achieved.
Harsh actions to avoid currency depreciation
The fresh limitations seem to be part of harsh actions to avoid currency depreciation, coming as CBI drives more foreign currency into the unstable local market and police periodically publicize the arrest of illicit currency traders in the prominent cities.
This week, the rial of Iran carried on to slump, striking a new all-time low of over 940,000 per US dollar. A dollar exchanged for not more than 600,000 rials in October 2024, and not more than 40,000 in the beginning of 2018.
The Iranian rial is facing a slump in the past few weeks at the time of increasing regional conflicts, hits to Tehran-led axis of resistance.
