Iran bans bitcoin trading: Banking official

By Ahmet Dursun

ANKARA (AA) – Bitcoin trading is illegal is Iran, an official with the country's Central Bank warned on Tuesday.

Transactions with the cryptocurrency were banned by the Supreme Council of Combating and Preventing Money Laundering, Nasser Hakimi, the deputy governor for new technologies at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Hakimi warned that bitcoin trading carries legal and investment risks, citing that the cryptocurrency has a high level of volatility.

The banking official, however, said that the production of bitcoin has not yet been banned in Iran.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz