A senior official in Iran’s government commerce has claimed that the country, which has been subject to economic sanctions for decades, has just completed its first foreign import of up to $10 million using bitcoin. On Twitter on August 9th, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade Alireza Peyman-Pak announced the country’s first import order paid for in cryptocurrency.
Iran Uses $10 Million in Cryptocurrency to Buy Imports
While Peyam-Pak didn’t go into specifics about how cryptocurrency would be used or what goods would be imported, he did say that the $10 million order might be the first in a series of international transactions settled with cryptocurrency. Additionally, this will help the country’s plan to increase this commerce in the following month.
According to him, international trade involving the designated countries will see a significant increase in the use of smart contracts and cryptocurrency in the following September. Iran was classified as a sanctioned nation until February 2022. According to Trading Economics, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India, and China imported the most goods into the country.
However, Russia is now at the top of the list of sanctioned countries after its aggressive actions against Ukraine in the beginning of the year. Since 2017, preparations have been underway in the Islamic nation for its eventual adoption of cryptocurrency. Iran revised previously released regulations in October of 2020 to allow the use of cryptocurrency for funding in exchange for imports.
Iran Aims to Widen Its Use of Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts Abroad
In June of last year, 30 operational licenses were issued by the Iranian Ministry of Trade to Iranian miners who intend to mine cryptocurrency for the purpose of trading it to the Iranian Central Bank. Mined tokens are currently being used for import payments in the country.
In addition, in February of this year, the country is moving toward a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to run on the Hyperledger Fabric protocol, which will improve the existing financial infrastructure. Projects like Iran’s are helpful to the crypto industry as a whole as it struggles through the current bear market.
