Cryptocurrencies, as an emerging phenomenon in the 21st century, have transformed the traditional boundaries of banking and monetary policies by creating decentralized financial systems, posing challenges such as regulating to prevent illegal activities, maintaining financial stability against price volatility, and supporting technological innovations. This study, using an exploratory approach, examines Iran's policies in the cryptocurrency domain, focusing on Bitcoin. Data were collected through 19 semi-structured interviews with government and private sector experts. Iran's policies in four areas—payments, exchanges, mining, and wallets—were analyzed from both formal and informal perspectives, as well as positive or negative attitudes.



The results indicate that Iran's formal policy in the payments and exchanges sectors is a complete ban, in the mining sector it is recognition and licensing, and in the wallet sector it is unclear. The informal policy in payments is passive-negative, in exchanges it is smart management, in mining it is mitigating drawbacks and leveraging benefits, and in wallets it is unclear. The government's attitude is unfriendly in payments and exchanges, somewhat friendly in mining, and unclear in wallets. Finally, four policy recommendations are proposed: 1) defining boundaries and red lines for users, 2) specialized analysis and policymaking considering the interdisciplinary nature of the field, 3) defining cryptocurrencies as digital assets and strengthening the role of the Securities and Exchange Organization in regulation, and 4) launching cryptocurrency baskets in the stock exchange (ETP).