Maziar Bahari, the editor of a news portal for Iranian citizen journalists based outside the country, Iranwire, explained the situation to the British media. “They are using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in order to get money,” Maziar told The Guardian newspaper. Adding that he heard that “many” students of the University of Cambridge specifically are having issues securing banking services in the U.K.
The British newspaper also reports that the students are advised by some U.K. institutions, such as the University of Reading, to fly back to Iran and bring large amounts of fiat cash notes to pay for their classes. This can bring its own set of legal problems for the students as they will try to cross international borders with the money, but the old established academic payment system appears to have no other option for them.
The country might soon follow a similar path as Venezuela, launching a national digital coin in order to try evading sanctions on a larger scale. If or when this occurs, the government of Iran can count on the support of experts from Russia. Meanwhile, international crypto exchanges have already stopped serving Iranian clients to avoid the risk of violating U.S. sanctions.
Is this going to bring more pressure on crypto exchanges to block users from sanctioned countries? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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