Iran President, Hassan Rouhani has proposed to create a Muslim cryptocurrency as one of a number of means to confront the economic dominance of the United States.
According to the Associated Press report, President Hassan Rouhani said at an Islamic conference in Malaysia on Dec. 19 that the Muslim world needs its own cryptocurrency to separate from American economic hegemony in international trade and cut reliance on the dollar.
Why does the Muslim world need creating a Cryptocurrency?
America has imposed several economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran since 1979. President Rouhani stated that the U.S. uses economic sanctions as the tools of domineering hegemony and bullying of other nations. He also put forward the establishment of a special banking and financial system among Muslim nations that use local currencies for trade as part of the effort to stand against the bullying of the U.S.
According to a survey from Gate Trade, crypto has been one of the most popular investments among Iranian people. More than a third of 1,650 Iranian investors earned from $500 to $3,000 by mining, while 58% earned income through trading. And most of the bitcoin holders are long-term investors who intend to hold the cryptocurrency for more than one year.
The opinion of other countries to Iran’s call
The conference was also attended by leaders of major Muslim countries including Turkey, Qatar and host Malaysia, while Saudi Arabia and Pakistan withdrew from the conference.
According to Free Malaysia Today, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Mahathir Bin Mohamad endorsed the initiative. The press noted that this was the first time that Iran and Turkey are considering the opportunity of creating a replacement for the U.S. dollar.
Mahathir Bin Mohamad said there are sanctions that can curb economic development when they use the US dollar, while they can use their own currencies or have a common currency.
In addition, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Muslim countries should focus on Islamic financing. He also suggested creating a working group to set out details. He also directly criticized the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, citing that the platform that connects the Muslim world together showed a “lack of implementation”.
Other countries also try to exit U.S. sanctions with crypto
BRICS, consisting of 5 major emerging nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), also put forward a creation of cryptocurrency for settling payment transactions between the countries. The CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev said that until now, the share of the US dollar in foreign trade settlements has dropped from 92% to 50% in the last five years.
Authorities in North Korea also expressed their intention to issue a digital currency. Meanwhile, in February 2018, Venezuela-based Petro has become the world’s first national oil-baked cryptocurrency.
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