Islamic Parliament of Iran to add cryptocurrencies to the “Anti-smuggling of goods and currency” general law

Yesterday On May 18, the Islamic Parliament of Iran passed some new bills and proposed amendments to the previous general law of the “Anti-smuggling of goods and currency” act of 2013 in the country. These new bills define the various activities as the identification of smuggling and try to combat these activities by introducing possible punishment.

According to the Mehr news agency, there is a specific legislative note which defines cryptocurrencies as the subject of these new laws. Per the report, the activities list below is not legal anymore for individuals.

۱) Importing or exporting of currency without legal formalities

۲) Any kind of intention to do smuggling of currency

۳) Any kind of exchanging currency, selling and buying of currency which is not under the supervision of legal banks and exchanges

۴) Exchanging any kind of currencies to gain surplus-value

۵) Proposing Any kind of financial services for those who are not in the country, no matter they are Iranian or not

As mentioned, the word currency above refers to both fiat and cryptocurrencies from now on. These new bills raise the attention of the Iran crypto community as their activity to buy or sell crypto is legal or not. Many local crypto-exchanges are not under the supervision of the Central Bank of Iran. It is not clear up to now that passing these new laws is the intention of the Islamic Parliament to make trading crypto legislate or not.

Although mining cryptocurrencies are officially authorized as an industry in Iran since July 2019, people have no idea how to change their crypto-rewards in the country. There is no legal crypto-exchange in the space and global exchanges are not willing to give services to Iranian due to financial American sanctions. The community looks for more details from the Islamic Parliament or the government.