Tim Mak6h ago

Good morning to readers. #Oil prices have surpassed $108 per #barrel (+50% compared to pre-#war).

Sina helps Iranians to live amid sanctions and spiking #inflation by exchanging rials to #bitcoins.

Since the war began, his digital #business has to navigate nationwide internet blackouts. https://www.iranwar.news/p/crypto-a-lifeline-in-iran-goes-dark

Crypto, a lifeline in Iran, goes dark.

In a country crushed by inflation and sanctions, cryptocurrency has become a way to protect savings from a collapsing rial. But without the internet, online crypto exchanges are cut off.

Iran War Dispatches with Tim Mak
Show threadTim Mak6h ago

Since the start of the #war in #Iran, Sina thinks the revenue at his online cryptocurrency exchange company has been chopped in half.

But he can’t prove it. His accountant doesn’t have #internet.

Show threadTim Mak6h ago
In Iran, which has been in a near-total internet #blackout since the #war started on February 28, that kind of problem is becoming common. Businesses that run online are flailing. Sina’s crypto business is one of them.
Show threadTim Mak6h ago
In Iran’s sanctioned economy, where inflation often soars above 40 percent, #cryptocurrency, a digital currency that operates without a central bank and allows international money transfers, has become a financial lifeline.
#Iran
Show threadTim Mak6h ago
Just recently the #Iranian #government started to charge tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is only accepting #Chinese yuan or crypto.
Show threadTim Mak6h ago
But that lifeline depends on something that is now even more scarce in Iran than the dollar: internet access. Without the #internet, people like Sina are finding that even the #crypto workaround is starting to collapse.
Show threadTim Mak6h ago
Find out how #cryptocurrency is becoming both more necessary and more difficult, as Iran's currency reaches record lows via the link. https://www.iranwar.news/p/crypto-a-lifeline-in-iran-goes-dark
Crypto, a lifeline in Iran, goes dark.

In a country crushed by inflation and sanctions, cryptocurrency has become a way to protect savings from a collapsing rial. But without the internet, online crypto exchanges are cut off.

Iran War Dispatches with Tim Mak
Show threadTim Mak6h ago

THE LATEST NEWS AT THIS HOUR:

#TRUMP TO ABANDON #UKRAINE IF #EUROPE DOESN'T HELP OPEN STRAIT OF #HORMUZ: Donald Trump is threatening to stop the #NATO supply of weapons for Ukraine if European countries don't help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Financial Times reported. https://www.ft.com/content/d304071a-ca97-4b3b-be93-ff880a6645c3?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Trump threatened to stop weapons for Ukraine unless Europe joined Hormuz coalition

Nato’s top official urged key alliance members to offer help to US to reopen key waterway

Financial Times
Show threadTim Mak6h ago
#TRUMP THREATENS TO HIT #IRAN “EXTREMELY HARD” IN FOLLOWING WEEKS: In his April 1 address, Trump reiterated that the U.S. military’s goals in Iran might be close to completion, but said that he was planning to bomb Iran “back to the stone age” in the coming two or three weeks.
Show threadClayfoot
@timkmak Sure sounds like a threat to commit war crimes
3:39pmPhanpy