The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced the completion of the preliminary stage of testing the state digital currency, as well as plans to integrate it into the country’s payment system.

A spokesperson for the CBI’s Payment Systems Oversight Department said the agency is ready to move into the implementation phase of the digital version of the Iranian rial. The digital currency issued by CBI was distributed among a limited number of state and commercial banks that have the necessary infrastructure and are ready to provide relevant services to the population.

“The rules governing the circulation of digital rials are in line with the rules in place for banknotes,” a CBI spokesman said.

The Central Bank of Iran announced the start of testing the digital rial in 2022. Then it was reported that the CBI digital currency is not designed to compete with global cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ether.

The stated goal of the CBI is to turn the “cryptorial” into a digital version of the national fiat currency. However, a number of industry experts have suggested that the launch of the digital rial would allow Iran to take advantage of the new form of national currency to circumvent US sanctions.

Earlier, the Central Bank of Iran announced its participation in the project of creating a gold-backed stablecoin of the Persian region, which will be used in foreign trade settlements instead of the dollar, ruble and Iranian rial.