October 08, 2021
The president of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has resigned or been fired after it was discovered he was allowing crypto miners to operate on the exchange’s premises.
Meanwhile, the TSE index continues to flounder around the 1.5 million mark neither sinking below its recent low of 1.1 million, nor ascending anywhere near its all-time high of 2.1 million.
The exchange president, Ali Sahrai, announced his resignation September 29. He said he submitted his resignation “to offer an opportunity for more investigations about crypto-currency mining at the stock exchange.” But the state news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), reported that Sahrai had been fired when the mining gear was found in the TSE offices.
Cryptocurrency mining is legal in the Islamic Republic, but mining operations must be registered with the government and the TSE operation was not registered.
Mostafa Beheshti, deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Organization, said, “Such activity is beyond the TSE’s purview and those in charge must be held accountable.”
No one said who was receiving the profits of the mining operation. The TSE’s financial reports said nothing about investing in or receiving profits from the activity, the Financial Tribune reported.
Other news reports quoted the TSE board of directors as saying a number of mining machines were installed last year “for research purposes.”
The TSE main index, TEDPIX, stood at 1,476,680 on October 3, which was 29 percent below its all-time high of 2,078,548 on August 9 of last year.
