Iran’s central bank is discussing with Russia the possibility of creating a joint stablecoin for the Persian region for foreign-trade settlements. According to «Ведомости», citing the executive director of the Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain, Alexander Brazhnikov.
The fact of the talks was confirmed by Anton Tkachev, a member of the State Duma committee on information policy, information technology and communications. He said that for discussions at the state level Russian authorities will need to develop cryptocurrency regulation.
According to Brazhnikov, in 2023 the Special Economic Zone in Astrakhan will begin accepting cargo shipments from Iran. Based on this, they could launch a gold-backed stablecoin. Dollar settlements between the two countries are banned due to sanctions — payments are made in the national currency.
The managing partner of the Grad law firm, Maria Agranovskaya, described the move as “a fairly workable instrument, which among other things could address problems related to SWIFT transfer restrictions.” She also noted the need to consider gold custody and the selection of intermediary banks to access fiat.
The largest gold-backed stablecoin is PAX Gold. According to CoinGecko, its market capitalization is $509 million, placing it at 82nd in the digital-asset rankings by this metric.
Back in October 2022, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, called the EU’s decision to ban servicing Russians’ crypto wallets an incentive for the development of digital financial assets in the country.
Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, rates and analysis.