Switzerland And Iran Continue Trading Despite US Sanctions, Thanks To Cryptocurrencies

It appears that Iran has been considering cryptocurrencies as a means of bypassing US sanctions. With digital assets becoming an increasingly viable option for payments, the country has been stepping up development in the space – which means that they could easily bypass sanctions and the US could do little about it.

The Reason For The Bypass

Since US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the atomic treaty with Iran a year ago and introduced "toughest sanctions of all time" on them, regular payments came to a standstill. With the dollar as the global reserve currency, Americans have a great influence on the international financial system and can block payments to a specific country as and whenever they want. A European bank that accepts money from Iran risks billions of dollars in this process.

Swiss companies have been waiting for the authorities to introduce legislation for a long time, and it is believed that it is not far off.

“I expect the first transactions in the next three to four months.”

Simon Fundel, President of the Swiss-Iranian Chamber of Commerce

Americans Are Powerless

Hardship makes you inventive. In order to circumvent the sanctions imposed on them, the Iranian central bank plans a new strategy for some months: It wants to permit the payment traffic between domestic and foreign companies with cryptocurrencies in the future. Transfers with digital currencies have great advantages: The Americans have no way to stop their transactions. The transfer of funds takes place directly between the sender and the recipient of the payment, without a bank or other central office being able to block the process on behalf of the US government.

"The motivation of the Iranians, at least with cryptocurrencies to preserve a piece of freedom, is great."

Philippe Welti , former Swiss ambassador to Iran

The introduction of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment by the Iranian central bank is also an opportunity for fintech start-ups who want to facilitate the transfer of money between Switzerland and Iran. There are several start-up companies that could "start tomorrow". Since they rely on Iranian partner companies, they don't want to express themselves publicly yet.

Payment Channel Until the Autumn

However, the Americans won't stand by the attempts to avoid the Iranians, even if they can not do much about it. The US government placed two Iranian Bitcoin accounts on its sanction list last fall.

Meanwhile, Switzerland is trying to set up a payment channel for humanitarian goods, with the permission of the Americans, so that Swiss companies can at least export food, medicines and medical technology goods to Iran accepting payments in cryptocurrency.

Russia too has been considering cryptocurrencies to bypass US sanctions

What do you think about the method applied by Iran and Switzerland for trading against US Sanctions? Let us know in the comments section below