DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Taxi drivers and motorcyclists type furiously on their cellphones as they wait at red lights in the Iranian capital during a heat wave in early June. Some pedestrians in Tehran are doing the same. They all believe they could get rich.

The object of your rapt attention? The “Hamster Kombat” app.

A broader crypto craze aside, the app’s rise in Iran highlights a harsher truth facing the Islamic Republic ahead of Friday’s presidential election to replace the last President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May: an economy crippled by Western sanctions, stubbornly high inflation and a lack of jobs.

Even as presidential candidates make promises about restore the country’s economyIranians, who were hearing about bitcoin for yearsNow they are investing in this app with the hope that one day it might be successful – without knowing much about who is behind it.

“It’s a sign of desperation, honestly,” said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Iran specialist Miaan Group. It’s about “trying to hold on to anything that you have a little hope that someday can turn into something valuable.”

Those who managed to divest from holdings in Iran’s beleaguered currency, the rial, bought propertyart, vehiclesprecious metals and other hard assets since the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.

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At the time of the agreement, the exchange rate was 32,000 rials to US$1. Today, the dollar is close to 580,000 rials – and many have found that the value of their bank accounts, retirement funds and other assets has been destroyed for years of rapid depreciation.

Meanwhile, fruit and vegetable prices have increased by 50% since last year, while meat prices have increased by 70%. The cost of a trip in a shared taxi, common in the Iranian capital, has almost doubled. Even rides on Tehran’s metro, still the cheapest option for the city’s commuters, have increased by around 30%.

“Since morning, I have received three visitors to my store, none of them have bought anything,” said Mohammad Reza Tabrizi, who runs a clothing store in central Tehran. “Most customers prefer to buy from street vendors or used items elsewhere.”

In the underground walkways and other areas of the city, street vendors sell almost everything they can get their hands on. It is this desperate environment that has seen increased public interest in cryptocurrencies and mobile games that offer coins.

The proliferation of smartphones throughout Iran, as well as the relatively low cost of mobile service compared to other nations, makes access to applications like “Hamster Kombat” attractive.

The app is accessed through the Telegram messaging app, which remains popular in Iran despite efforts by authorities trying to block access to it. It works like an incremental or “clicker” game – users repeatedly click on an object or complete repetitive tasks to earn points.

In “Hamster Kombat,” users believe they can access a supposed cryptocurrency associated with the game that is not yet publicly traded.

In an email, individuals calling themselves developers of the game declined to answer questions about their identities or business plans, but insisted they were “not offering any cryptocurrency in the game.”

“We are educating our audience about cryptography through game mechanics,” the email stated.

Still, the game resembles another app that has offered cryptocurrency to Iranians in the past — and it appears that just the promise of what could be free money could drive some Iranians to distraction.

Online jokes show a man tapping a tombstone as if it were a cell phone. Another uses a massage gun to quickly punch a hamster on screen.

But the public’s fascination with the game also caught the attention of authorities.

Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, deputy head of the Iranian military, described the app as part of the West’s “soft war” against Iranian theocracy ahead of the elections.

“One of the characteristics of the enemy’s soft war is the game of ‘Hamster’,” Sayyari said, according to state news agency IRNA. He theorized that the “enemy” is popularizing the game so that people are distracted and don’t “pay attention to the presidential candidates’ plans.”

“So (the people) cannot choose the best candidates,” said Sayyari. Hard-line experts on Iran have expressed similar views.

The daily JameJam, published by Iranian state television, also warned that the growing interest in the game was a sign of “the dream of becoming rich overnight and gaining wealth effortlessly”. He said players range from “builders, mechanics and refrigerator repairmen to colleagues and classmates at university.”

“A society that, instead of working and trying to be successful and earn money, resorts to these games and looks for shortcuts and unexpected gains, gradually loses the culture of effort and entrepreneurship and moves towards convenience”, states the newspaper, without recognizing that The country’s economic problems were potentially driving interest in the app.

The app even caught the attention of a 97-year-old Shia religious scholar, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, known for his fatwas declaring things “haram” or “forbidden,” in his office in the holy city of QomIran’s center of Shia learning, filled with religious schools and revered shrines.

Calling cryptocurrency “the source of a lot of abuse,” Shirazi said people should not use the “Hamster Kombat” app or similar apps involving bitcoin.

Iran is not alone in having concerns about the game.

Authorities in Ukraine, involved in a devastating war with Iranian-armed Russia since the 2022 Moscow hack, it has warned that users’ data remains stored in Russia and could put them at risk.

Then there is the broader risk of exposure to malware, as consumers in Iran are often unable to legally purchase new software or even access legitimate app stores. They also face risk of state-sponsored hackers targeting them for their political views.

Meanwhile, as Iran’s election campaign progresses, presidential candidates are using Instagram, X and Telegram – all services previously banned by the theocracy following rounds of nationwide protests.

“As long as we are able to pay the price, everything will be available,” said Rashidi, the Iran expert.

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Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.

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