Iran's central bank has accumulated at least 507 million US dollars in Tether (USDT), according to a report by analytics firm Elliptic. The stablecoin purchases occurred systematically through a network of roughly 50 crypto wallets. This happened while the Iranian rial fell to a historic low of 1.47 million per US dollar.
The currency lost nearly half its value in 2025 alone. Nationwide protests erupted in late December 2025 after the rial hit new record lows and the central bank governor resigned. Inflation stood at 42.5 percent in December 2025, while food prices surged by 72 percent.
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Digital dollars as crisis response
The central bank's purchases took place in April and May 2025, when pressure on the rial was particularly intense. Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told Bloomberg that most of the funds were sent to Nobitex. There they were likely sold for rial. In essence, these were digital open market operations to support the national currency.
Nobitex dominates Iran's crypto market with an 87 percent share of total trading volume. Of the over 3 billion US dollars that flowed through the platform in 2025, 2 billion moved via the TRON network in the form of USDT. The ecosystem reached a total volume of 7.78 billion US dollars in 2025.
In June 2025, Nobitex suffered a severe setback. Hackers stole over 90 million US dollars in various cryptocurrencies. A pro-Israeli group called Gonjeshke Darande (Predatory Sparrow) claimed responsibility for the attack. Trading volume on the platform then dropped by 70 percent.
Citizens flee to the digital dollar
For ordinary Iranians, stablecoins have long become a survival tool. Around 22 percent of the population now uses cryptocurrencies. With inflation exceeding 40 percent and a rial that continuously loses value, converting to USDT offers one of the few ways to protect savings.
The government responded with restrictions in September 2025. The Central Bank's High Council introduced a cap of 5,000 US dollars per person per year for stablecoin purchases. Holdings may also not exceed 10,000 US dollars. The impact was obvious. These limits did not stop dollar demand but merely drove it underground.
In fact, shortly after the announcement, advertisements appeared offering cash for borrowing ID numbers. This allowed buyers to circumvent the purchase limits.
Sanctions evasion in focus
Cryptocurrency use by Iranian state actors faces intense international scrutiny. In September 2025, Israel's Defense Ministry ordered the seizure of 187 crypto wallets attributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to Elliptic, a total of 1.5 billion US dollars in USDT flowed through these wallets.
Tether responded by freezing 39 of the identified wallets with a balance of around 1.5 million US dollars. In July 2025, the company had already blocked 42 wallets with Iranian connections and frozen approximately 37 million US dollars.
And the scale is substantial. An investigation found that the IRGC moved around 1 billion US dollars through two UK-registered exchanges since 2023. The platforms Zedcex and Zedxion used shell directors and virtual office addresses, despite processing billions in on-chain activity. IRGC-linked transactions accounted for 56 percent of these exchanges' total volume.
Between survival and terror financing
Crypto use in Iran splits into two worlds. On one side stand millions of citizens who want to protect their savings from inflation. According to Chainalysis, illegal transactions on Iranian exchanges account for just 0.9 percent of activity.
On the other side, state and state-affiliated actors use digital assets for sanctions evasion and terror financing. TRM Labs identified direct transfers of over 10 million US dollars from IRGC wallets to Sa'id Ahmad Muhammad al-Jamal, a Yemeni national who runs a smuggling network supporting the Houthis.
Iran's defense export center Mindex now openly accepts cryptocurrencies for weapons exports. The center's website states that accepted payment methods include "the cryptocurrency agreed upon in the contract." Products offered include missiles, aircraft, tanks, and ships.
Regulatory pressure mounts
The international community is intensifying pressure. The United Nations imposed renewed sanctions on Iran in September 2025 after the Security Council failed to pass a resolution maintaining sanctions relief. The US Treasury imposed a 3.1 million US dollar penalty on crypto wallet provider Exodus for violations of Iran sanctions.
In the US, the GENIUS Act for stablecoin regulation took effect in July 2025. The EU is simultaneously implementing its MiCA regulation. Both frameworks aim to curb the use of stablecoins for sanctions evasion.
For Iran, the situation remains precarious. Gross domestic product shrank from around 600 billion US dollars in 2010 to an estimated 356 billion US dollars in 2025. The World Bank expects a further decline of 2.8 percent in 2026. At the same time, an estimated 1.4 percent of Iran's GDP already flows through crypto channels. This trend is likely to accelerate given the ongoing rial collapse.
