Iran has loosened a rule that forced exporters to convert overseas earnings at official exchange rates, the prices a government fixes for currency conversion rather than letting the market decide, before those funds could be used to pay for imports, the Financial Times reported. The paper tied the change to Iran's reported use of cryptocurrency to route transactions around US sanctions. Exporters can now use their foreign currency earnings directly to fund imports.
What the old requirement meant in practice
Forcing exporters to convert at official rates gave the Iranian government control over how foreign currency moved inside the country. An exporter who earned foreign currency abroad had to sell it to the government at those fixed prices before it could be used domestically. The Financial Times reported that this step has now been removed.
The sanctions and crypto connection
US sanctions work largely by cutting Iran off from international banking. Transactions routed through US-connected financial networks can be blocked or flagged. Cryptocurrency operates on decentralized networks without a central clearinghouse, which makes those same tools harder to apply.
The Financial Times connected the currency rule relaxation to Iran's reported use of crypto to conduct transactions outside the sanctions regime, though it did not detail the scope of that activity.