Two researchers at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) have produced a comprehensive report on Russia, Venezuela, Iran and China’s efforts to create or exploit alternative payment systems that would allow them to circumvent the US dollar as a means of enforcing American foreign… Read More
Iran Deputy Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri told an audience in Tehran over the weekend that cryptocurrency miners in his country should have to pay the same rates for power as firms purchasing electricity exports, Iranian news site Financial Tribune reports. So far, Iran has had a… Read More
Peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading service LocalBitcoins has shut down trading among users in Iran, likely in order to comply with US sanctions, Coindesk reports. Iranian LocalBitcoins customers are still allowed to withdraw bitcoins but reportedly cannot conduct new trades or update previous ones. According to reporter… Read More
In the wake of increasing Chinese state reticence towards a once supported industry, the biggest Chinese crypto mining firms have been steadily expanding or relocating to Canada, the US and Iceland, Chinese crypto news outlet 8BTC reports. But small and mid-size Chinese crypto miners have… Read More
In its latest “Strategic Alliance Bulletin,” auditing firm PwC (formerly-known-as PricewaterhouseCoopers) has countered the sanguine narratives in crypto by stating unequivocally: “Cryptocurrency has increasingly been associated with serving criminal and nefarious purposes, rather than supporting the decentralisation of ‘traditional’ currency.” That said, the company does… Read More
Iran’s Secretary of the Criminal Content Definition Task Force, Javad Javidnia, has warned Iranian’s to stay away from the Telegram messaging app’s new crypto token, “Gram,” Tehran Times (TT) reports. According to a TT paraphrase, Javidnia has told the public that: “…any cooperation with Telegram messaging app(‘s)…launch (of)… Read More
Republican Senator for Texas Ted Cruz and Congressman Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin, introduced a new bill into the American Senate and House Thursday, a bill designed to “impose maximum financial pressure on Iran. The “Blocking Iranian Illicit Finance Act” (H.R.7321) was also co-sponsored… Read More
US Department of the Treasury Under Secretary, Sigal Mandelker, told attendees of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference this week that she expects to cooperate with financial institutions to enhance their illicit finance countermeasures: “We encourage the private sector…to stay proactive and to innovate with new… Read More
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned the Bitcoin addresses of two Iranians the office says processed Bitcoin ransoms on behalf of Iranian hackers who targeted government and business sites in the US and Canada. Anyone who does… Read More
Yesterday, the American Justice Department indicted Iranian citizens Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, for executing remote cyber attacks against 200 American government agencies, municipalities and health care businesses, the Daily Mail reports. The charges were announced by US Deputy Attorney… Read More
The Chairperson for the International Business Forum, an organization established in 1995 to “provide a trustworthy global business network, especially for Muslim business-people,” says the organization is going to create a cryptocurrency to help Islamic countries evade controls associated with the US dollar, which has… Read More
The CEO of Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), a private Fintech company in Iran, says the country’s Central Bank has given his company permission to start trailing the cryptocurrency it designed for the Iranian state, Ibena reports. Seyyed Abotaleb Najafi, the London-trained CEO of ISC, reportedly emphasized… Read More
Pilates, a private bank accused by murdered journalist Daphne Carauna Galizia of laundering money for Maltese politicians and foreign interests, has lost its license, Financial Times reports. The license was withdrawn last Friday by the European Central Bank (ECB), several months after Pilatus’ founder and ex-chairman Seyed… Read More
The American Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory warning that Iranian state actors may escalate their attempts to move money in and out of the country through “illicit” channels (including cryptocurrencies) once the US completes its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action… Read More
Costs presently outweigh benefits, and so the European Central Bank (ECB), “has no plans to issue a central bank digital currency,” at this time, though it is investigating the matter, says ECB president, Mario Draghi. Draghi made the comments in a September 12th letter responding… Read More
According to IBENA, a news agency in banking and economy area, which is affiliated with the Central Bank of Iran, the country has “[accepted] cryptocurrency mining as [an] industry.” Spokesperson Abolhassan Firouzabadi said the Iranian National Cyberspace Center will be leading the crypto initiative with the Central Bank, which… Read More
An Iranian politician has once again taken to state-owned media to promise the release of a government cryptocurrency to help Iran sidestep sanctions and participate freely in the global economy, Press TV reports via ISNA. The latest comments were made by the Deputy for Management and… Read More
The latest cybersecurity report from Accenture says that, “nation-state-sponsored cyberattacks (emanating from Iran have) grown, and this is likely to continue.” The report also claims that Iranian hackers are becoming more adept at cyberattacks involving cryptocurrencies, including mining malware attacks (where hackers create “botnets” of… Read More
The rial traded at historic lows this weekend in Iranian black markets as financial problems made worse by US sanctions continue to take a toll on the country. According to the Arab Times, Iran’s national currency traded at 116 000-to one US dollar Saturday before… Read More
A report in Ibena from last week indicates that the US government is confiscating Bitcoins held by Iranians and the confiscation is ongoing. According to Sepehr Mohammadi from the Iranian Blockchain Community, the US has seized 500 bitcoins or more. In May of this year,… Read More
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