As far as regulation is concerned, one of the most active regions globally in terms of communication with the wider world as to how governments in the region in question intend to police Bitcoin and the Cryptocurrency space has been Asia. Be it positive or negative, we have had strong indications out of China, Japan and India as to where policymakers stand on Cryptocurrency and where the future lies for Bitcoin and others.
The Middle East, on the other hand, has been relatively quiet. We have seen a little bit of action out of Dubai but, that aside, there has not really been any indication in line with the above outlined expectations.
That is, until now.
A senior banker and a member of the Central Bank of Iran spoke at a press conference (available here) at the start of this week.
The conference was set up to the cover a wide variety of topics but Fintech played a major role and, when asked a question about Bitcoin and its future in Iran, the central banker in question, called Naser Hakimi, gave this answer:
"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, more precautions are coming into the market because of the possibility of malice."
Of note, Hakimi is the Deputy Director of New Technologies at the Central Bank of Iran so, if there is anybody that is going to form policy on this matter in the nation, it's him.
The response seems a little boilerplate and is one that we have seen in the past from a number of policymakers in similar positions globally. With that said, however, that central banks in countries like Iran are addressing Bitcoin can be regarded as nothing but a step forward for mainstream aggregate adoption