New 18-Month Task Force to License Iran’s Crypto Exchange Platforms

A resolution formally issued on September 5, 2026, creates a temporary 13-agency task force with authority to draft rules, issue licenses and supervise crypto-asset exchange platforms in Iran for 18 months.

The measure is intended to consolidate oversight that has been divided among several institutions. The task force will also set a timetable for existing platforms to comply with its requirements and monitor how those requirements are implemented.

The resolution was approved by the High Commission for the Regulation of Cyberspace on May 28, 2025, but was not issued for implementation until roughly 15 months later. It creates a temporary coordination body rather than naming a permanent regulator for the sector.

A broad regulatory coalition

The task force includes representatives from the National Center for Cyberspace, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, the science and technology vice presidency, the Central Bank of Iran, the Cyber Police, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Intelligence Organization, the Securities and Exchange Organization, the Iran Computer Guild Organization and the National Union of Virtual Businesses.

That membership gives financial regulators, law-enforcement and intelligence bodies, technology policymakers and private-sector representatives a formal role in the same process.

The group must meet at least once every two weeks and report its work to the specialist crypto-assets committee. Its chair and secretary are to be elected at its first meeting.

Licensing overlap remains unclear

The Central Bank’s High Council approved a separate 58-article framework for “crypto-money brokers” in September 2025. Those rules covered company formation, licensing, corporate governance and supervision, and required existing operators to seek a license.

The Central Bank is represented on the new task force, but the resolution does not say whether the group’s licensing mandate replaces, coordinates with or sits alongside the bank’s framework.

A development mandate

The resolution also directs the task force to facilitate the development of crypto-assets for financing and investment in production, subject to the requirements it adopts.

That language follows recent comments by Economy Minister Seyed Ali Madanizadeh, who said the government planned to develop legal infrastructure and new financial tools that could channel crypto-assets held in household savings into investment and production.

Neither the resolution nor the minister’s comments set out how such a mechanism would operate. The task force now has 18 months from the resolution’s issuance to develop rules, set compliance deadlines and oversee their implementation.