Cryptocurrency project 'on track’ in Iran despite ban

DUBAI, Apr 29 (Reuters): Iran has developed an experimental local cryptocurrency, a government minister said on Saturday, days after the country's central bank banned trading in digital currencies including bitcoin.

Iran's central bank last week prohibited local banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies due to concerns about money-laundering as the country tries to halt a currency crisis ahead of a possible return of crippling sanctions.

But Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said the local project would not be affected.

"The central bank's (ban) does not mean the prohibition or restriction of the use of the digital currency in domestic development," he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

"Last week, at a joint meeting to review the progress of the (local cryptocurrency) project, it was announced that the experimental model was ready," Azari-Jahromi added.

Azari-Jahromi, Iran's youngest minister and known as an innovator, said in a tweet in February that his ministry's Post Bank had been working with local experts on an experimental cryptocurrency model that would be presented to the country's banks for review and possible approval.