The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is making strides in its plans to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) after successfully completing the pre-pilot phase of development.

In an announcement made by the Monetary and Banking Research Institute (MBRI) on Feb. 20, Mohammad Reza Mani Yekta — the head of the CBI office for supervising payment systems — declared that the pre-pilot phase was a success. Mani Yekta noted that the central bank is now looking to expand the scope of the CBDC pilot in the country’s payment system, but without hastening its rollout.

“The pre-pilot phase concluded successfully with valuable achievements. The project will soon be launched in other ecosystems and be made available to more users,” Mani Yekta stated. He also pointed out that the regulations governing the prospective digital rial will be the same as those for paper money.

Furthermore, Mani Yekta revealed that 10 banks in Iran have already applied to join the crypto-rial project, which includes Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat. It is anticipated that all banks and credit institutions in the country will eventually be providing electronic wallets for the digital currency.

As reported earlier, the CBI first began researching the potential of a CBDC in 2017, with a view to initiating a pilot in January 2022. The regulator took the plunge in September 2022, with the intention of elevating financial inclusion and competing with global stablecoins.

The “crypto rial” project is pegged to the Iranian rial at a 1:1 ratio and is based on the Borna platform, which was built using the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform created by IBM. The Iranian government is now preparing a visit from Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the Bank of Russia, with the two countries reportedly collaborating on a gold-backed stablecoin that could be used as a payment method in foreign trade.