Ravaged by crippling hyperinflation, Iran’s Parliament has sanctioned the redenomination of its fiat — the rial — by replacing it with a new currency called the toman. According to the plan, each toman will be worth 10,000 rials. The redenomination plan effectively removes four place values (four zeros) from the Iranian national currency as part of efforts to kickstart an economic recovery from the country. It is a move that echoes steps taken by other countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe amid huge inflation. With the United States exiting its nuclear deal with Iran and reintroducing sanctions, the country’s economic situation …

New York-based blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis has launched a new initiative to shed more light on the scope of its latest cryptocurrency crime analyses. Published on May 4, three installments of the firm’s new Crypto Crime Intelligence Briefs provide insights into the mechanisms and routes being used for illicit transactions in the crypto space. In launching its new series, Chainalysis says that while none of the entities analyzed in its new briefs is currently under active investigation, it is releasing the information to support ongoing work by law enforcement, regulators, cybersecurity firms and compliance professionals. Global vectors to keep an …

Per a May 4 report from local outlet Mehr News, Iran’s new ‘Reforming Monetary and Banking Law’ has passed in parliament. The new law dictates the transition from rial to the toman — valued at 10,000 rials — within the next two years. Hyperinflation and the BTC connection in Iran Back in 2018, Iranian authorities set an official exchange rate at some 42,000 rial to the dollar. Many currency exchanges still show this as the going rate. At the same time, peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins is seeing prices of 1,445,658,900 rials per BTC — according to the official exchange rate, …

Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade granted a license for cryptocurrency mining company iMiner to operate in the country. With 6,000 rigs, iMiner’s setup would purportedly make it one of the largest crypto miners in Iran. According to an article published on April 29, the Turkey-based company has invested nearly $7.3 million into a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm in the Semnan Province of Iran, where it will mine digital currency with 6,000 rigs capable of 96,000 terahashes per second (TH/s) in total. This equates to 16 TH/s per rig on average, the same as the Aladdin Miner listed on …

While Telegram isn’t giving up its ongoing legal battle with United States regulators to launch its TON blockchain project, some online perpetrators are taking advantage of the messenger’s popularity to expose millions of user records of third-party versions of Telegram app. Per an investigation by cybersecurity firm Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko, at least 42 million Iranian “Telegram” usernames and phone numbers were leaked via unofficial Iranian-made versions of Telegram, while real Telegram is banned in the country. 42 million Iranians that are willing to use the banned messenger got their data exposed According to a March 30 report …

This week an Iranian general called for a unique way to bypass the sanctions on his country enforced by the United States. Saeed Muhammad, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, called for Iran to use cryptocurrencies to evade the economic sanctions. According to the Telegram channel of Coinit.ir, a crypto news organization based in Iran, the general addressed a crowd on Feb. 26 (translated from Farsi): "We are demanding the creation of a more sophisticated mechanism to bypass sanctions. To circumvent sanctions, we must develop solutions such as the exchange of products and the use of cryptocurrencies with our …

Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has issued over 1,000 cryptocurrency mining licenses to domestic operations. According to a report published on Jan. 24 by Iran’s Banking and Economic System Reference Media (IBENA), a member of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Guild Organization’s blockchain commission, Amir Hossein Saeedi Nai, informed the public of the number of licenses issued. He explained that before launching a mining operation in the country, entrepreneurs must apply for a license, adding that the government has issued over 1,000 permits so far, and several mining farms have already launched operations. Nai estimated that, if …

In the summer of 2019, the 10-year minus 3-month yield curve inverted for the first time in 13 years. During the time of the inversion, Bitcoin’s price hit all-time highs for the year. The previous inversion in 2006 was followed shortly thereafter by the global economic crisis of 2008. On Jan. 3rd 2020, United States President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by drone strike. The Iranian government retaliated on Jan. 8th by launching missiles at two American bases in Iraq located near Baghdad. Throughout the Iran-U.S. conflict, Bitcoin’s price spiked upward by 21%, from just …

Recently, the cryptocurrency mining community has been shaken with rumors of Chinese miners leaving Iran — where crypto mining is authorized as an industrial activity — for Central Asia. The move has ostensibly been taken in an attempt to find a new safe haven amid the tensions between the United States and Iran, as well as rising oil and energy prices. Iran’s attraction for crypto mining operations lies in subsidized electricity rates — as of July, 0.7 cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh), — which had purportedly even prompted miners from mining centers such as China to relocate their operations to the …

For one week, the Iran–United States military crisis gripped the crypto community. It began on Jan. 3 with a U.S. drone strike on a convoy traveling near Baghdad International Airport, killing Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) soared. As reported by Cointelegraph at the time, there is strong evidence to suggest that BTC’s price surge from $7,000 to nearly $8,500 is strongly linked to the tensions between the two nations. For example, the push toward $8,500 took place at the same time as mainstream media began to report on a …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Bitcoin on the verge of breaking seven-month downtrend It’s been another tumultuous week for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, which is on the verge of breaking out of a long-running downtrend. Although BTC rallied to $8,400 a few days ago — which is the next resistance zone, according to analysts — prices have since retreated back …

Earlier this week, the world’s flagship crypto asset saw its value surge from around the $8,000 mark to just over $8,430 within an hour’s time. This latest price action came after the Iranian government decided to launch a missile attack on an Iraqi military base housing American troops. However, it bears mentioning that Iran’s actions were prompted by United States President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate Iranian general Qassem Soleimani — a controversial figure in the West but loved by the masses in his home country. The overall value of Bitcoin (BTC) is now up by around 15% this year, …