Document Type : Original Article
Author
Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Arak University, Arak, Iran
10.22091/ijicl.2024.11013.1098
Abstract
Cryptocurrencies, despite their unknown nature, are one of the most important new phenomena in the world economy. Since the emergence of this type of currency with the launch of the first cryptocurrency «Bitcoin» in 2009, terrorist groups began to use them to fund their activities. Therefore, states, organizations, and banks had to adopt appropriate anti-terrorist financing methods in light of such development. This research deals with a raft of issues related to cryptocurrencies, how they used for terrorist financing, as well as their benefits and risks. In the realm of Iran's regulations, the ruling policies and measures against the financing of terrorist crimes through cryptocurrencies, while creating challenges, have adopted conflicting and scattered policies to identify the exchange and mining of cryptocurrencies in terms of theory and practice, which include the illegitimacy of exchange activities. Internally, the issuance of Central Bank instructions aimed at identifying this phenomenon and demanding the upper authorities, especially the Islamic Council. This is despite the fact that other countries such as China, despite adopting a dual policy, have adapted the way to deal with this phenomenon by prohibiting its use in monetary and banking measures. Of course, in countries such as Canada and the United States, special legal regulations and policies have been established in the field of using Bitcoin; Meanwhile, in this regard, Japan has developed regulations for virtual currency exchange service providers and identification of violators by adopting a guarantee of criminal execution.
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