The Central Bank of Iran has said that it is to study all aspects of bitcoin due to the high risk of uncertainty it brings to the market.
Speaking at a press conference, the deputy director of the central bank’s new technologies, Naser Hakimi, said that the bank is planning on looking further into the cryptocurrency. It will then be followed up by a full review of the bank’s policies in this area.
According to Hakimi, there are two areas of concern regarding bitcoin: the risk of uncertainty with its fluctuations and speculation. He said:
Given that bitcoin and other currencies have not been introduced by the central bank as the official currency, as well as the risk of buying it and the activity of traders in this field, we want investors and people to [be] more precautions coming into the market because of the possibility of malice.
He added that control and monitoring measures were being put into place, but that investors should be aware of the risks relating to the digital currency.
These comments come at a time when the Iranian government was reported as stating that the country could be adopting bitcoin. According to a high ranking government official, the necessary infrastructure is being put into place.
Last month, Amir Hossein Davaee, Iranian deputy minister of information and communication technology, said:
The ministry of communications and information technology has already conducted a number of research studies as part of efforts to prepare the infrastructure to use bitcoin inside the country.
Davaee added that the adoption of the digital currency into Iran would greatly benefit the country’s interests, adding:
Arrangements are being made with the related organisations to put together the infrastructure as early as possible.
This move comes at a time when bitcoin saw its value fall to $5,500 last weekend, after it had reached a new record high of $7,800. The boost in price was helped along by the announcement that the organisers of SegWit2x were suspending the planned upgrade to bitcoin’s blockchain. However, as the news became evident market prices were impacted with bitcoin dropping 29 percent in value. At the time of publishing the digital currency is trading over $6,600, according to CoinMarketCap.
No doubt the volatility of bitcoin will be a cause of concern for the Central Bank of Iran and the Iranian government as they both consider how the digital currency can fit into its society.