In a somewhat bizarre move from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), trading of cryptocurrency mined outside the country has reportedly been banned.
Announced Thursday by news outlet Iran International, the ban attempts to stymie capital flight from the country that could be attributed to the effects of its depreciating national currency, the rial.
That’s according to Fatemeh Fannizadeh, Swiss qualified independent practitioner and attorney at law, who spoke on the matter via Twitter on Friday.
Iran has already banned the use of cryptocurrency for payments, while the country’s financial institutions are free to use cryptocurrency, derived from sanctioned miners, to pay for imports.
See also: Iran Central Bank to Allow Money Changers, Banks to Pay for Imports Using Mined Crypto
How exactly the central bank intends to regulate the inflow of fungible cryptocurrency from outside the country’s borders remains unclear.
CoinDesk attempted to contact the CBI but did not receive a reply by press time.