Crypto payments are being accpeted by a hotel booking portal in Iran to evade US-led sanctions that affect how Iranians interact with banks.
HotelsInIran.com (“Hotels in Iran”), a major Iranian hotel booking platform, began accepting payments in cryptocurrency subsequent to the imposition of additional sanctions by the U.S. on Iran and Russia in July 2018.
Adoption of Bitcoin
Leonhard Weese, co-founder, and president of the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association (HKBA), revealed earlier this week that a hotel booking company informed its clients their motive for encouraging customers to process payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.
The Government of Iran Seriously Considering Use of Crypto
With its allies, the government of Iran is seriously considering the utilization of major digital assets to evade newly established U.S. sanctions and process cross-border payments.
Most recently, Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi, the head of Iran’s Parliamentary Commission of Economic Affairs (IPCEA), said in an interview with major Russian publication RBC that the Central Bank of India has already begun cooperating with the Russian authorities to move over from the SWIFT system to cryptocurrencies.
Pourebrahimi said:
“[IPCEA has already] obliged the Central Bank of Iran to start developing proposals for the use of cryptocurrency. Over the past year or two, the use of cryptocurrency has become an important issue. This is one of the good ways to bypass the use of the dollar, as well as the replacement of the SWIFT system. They [Russia] share our opinion. We said that if we manage to promote this work, then we will be the first countries that use cryptocurrency in the exchange of goods.”
Although the government of Iran has expressed opposition against digital currency trading throughout the past few years, the government’s adoption of cryptocurrencies as an alternative financial system to central bank-backed fiat money may ultimately lead to the embracement of digital assets by the Iranian population.
