Iran’s central bank purchased more than $500 million worth of digital currency last year as it struggles to handle a worsening money crisis and get around American sanctions, according to a report from blockchain research firm Elliptic.
The bank made two separate purchases of Tether’s USDT in April and May 2025, Elliptic announced on Wednesday. The company based its findings on leaked papers and its own investigation.
Through June 2025, most of the money went to an Iranian digital currency exchange where people could keep their USDT, swap it for other digital currencies, or exchange it for Iranian rials, Elliptic reported. Things changed after hackers who support Israel broke into that exchange in June. Following the attack, USDT was converted into various crypto assets and moved across various blockchain networks.
Iran has been mostly locked out of worldwide money markets and banks since 2018. That was when President Donald Trump walked away from a major nuclear agreement and put strict penalties on the country.
Limits on Iran’s oil sales have hurt the country’s ability to get foreign money. Oil exports are Iran’s biggest way of earning money from other countries. Iran also cannot bring home money from its exports and has been kicked out of the SWIFT banking system. These problems have made it hard for the central bank to protect the value of the rial and fight rising prices.
Elliptic report, seen by The Guardian, said the central bank appears to be using the digital currency to stop the rial from losing more value and to handle payments for trade with other countries. This method lets Iran build what Elliptic called a “sanctions-proof banking system” and “a shadow money layer that can hold US dollar value where US officials cannot reach it.”
Iran’s digital currency market reaches $7.78 billion
Another blockchain research company called Chainalysis put out a report last week saying Iran’s crypto sector was worth $7.78 billion in 2025. Growing numbers of Iranians are trying to protect their money from runaway inflation and looking for options besides increasingly expensive dollars and euros.
The Iranian rial has dropped about 90 percent in value since 2018, and the decline has gotten worse as conflicts in the region have grown. Iranian citizens are dealing with inflation rates between 40 and 50 percent.
Iran’s digital currency activity reached over $7.78 billion in 2025, growing faster than the previous year. The activity shows big jumps that line up with major events in the country and the region.
A smaller increase happened during a 12-day conflict in June 2025 between Iran and Israel. That conflict saw joint American and Israeli attacks against Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Hackers also attacked Nobitex, Iran’s biggest digital currency exchange, and Bank Sepah, Iran’s oldest bank that the Revolutionary Guards use heavily. Hackers broke into Iranian state television too, showing footage of women’s protests and telling Iranians to go into the streets.
Revolutionary Guard dominates crypto activity
Addresses connected to the Revolutionary Guards have grown over time as a portion of Iran’s overall crypto activity. They made up more than 50 percent of the total values received in the last three months of 2025. In 2024, the amount of money received by Revolutionary Guards’ addresses reached over $2 billion, jumping to more than $3 billion in 2025.
Recent information shows a big change in digital currency behavior during the current mass protests. Comparing late 2025 with late December 2025 to early January 2026, there were major increases in both the average daily dollar amount moved and the number of daily transfers to personal wallets.
The biggest sign is the jump in withdrawals from Iranian exchanges to personal Bitcoin wallets. This increase suggests Iranians are taking control of Bitcoin at a much higher rate during protests. Many see Bitcoin’s ability to resist censorship and stay under personal control as valuable when people might need to leave quickly or work outside government money channels.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/iran-bought-500-million-in-digital-currency/
