How Iran Uses Bitcoin Mining to Evade Sanctions and ?Export? Millions of Barrels of Oil

Sign up here to receive your copy.How Iran uses Bitcoin mining to evade sanctions and “export” millions of barrels of oil - and what financial institutions can do to manage the sanctions risk.Elliptic estimates that 4.5% of all Bitcoin mining takes place in Iran, allowing the country to circumvent trade embargoes and earn hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptoassets that can be used to purchase imports and bypass sanctions. Iran has recognised that Bitcoin mining represents an attractive opportunity for a sanctions-hit economy suffering from a shortage of hard cash, but with a surplus of oil and natural gas.In 2019 Iran officially recognised cryptoasset mining, later establishing a licensing regime that required miners to identify themselves, pay a higher (but still very low) tariff for electricity, and to sell their mined bitcoins to Iran’s central bank. Iran-based miners are paid directly in Bitcoin, which can then be used to pay for imports - allowing sanctions on payments through Iranian financial institutions to be circumvented.