Amid an unprecedented surge in cryptocurrency activity in Iran, U.S. officials are examining the role of certain cryptocurrency platforms in helping Iranian regime entities and officials circumvent sanctions, an issue that has once again placed the Iranian regime’s financial system at the center of Washington’s attention.
According to Reuters, an international news agency, U.S. investigators are examining whether some cryptocurrency platforms have helped officials and entities linked to Iran’s regime evade international sanctions. These investigations are taking place as the volume of cryptocurrency activity in Iran has increased significantly.
Based on estimates by blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions linked to Iran reached about 8 to 10 billion dollars last year. This increase has been attributed to the simultaneous turn by government-linked groups and retail investors toward digital currencies.
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The head of global policy at TRM Labs told Reuters that the U.S. Treasury Department is examining whether cryptocurrency platforms have enabled actors linked to Iran’s regime to bypass sanctions, including by transferring money abroad, accessing hard currencies, or procuring goods. He said he is directly aware of the Treasury Department’s concerns in this regard.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department, without naming specific platforms, referred Reuters to a statement issued in September that announced actions by the department against Iran-backed shadow banking networks, including networks that use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions.
According to TRM Labs estimates, Iran’s cryptocurrency activity amounted to about 10 billion dollars last year, while this figure stood at about 11.4 billion dollars in 2024. Chainalysis has also reported that Iranian wallets received a record 7.8 billion dollars in cryptocurrency in 2025, marking a sharp increase compared with 7.4 billion dollars in 2024 and 3.17 billion dollars in 2023.
The International Monetary Fund had previously warned that although cryptocurrencies still account for a small share of the global financial system, their use is increasing in countries with weak currencies and limited access to the international financial system. Iran, which has effectively been excluded from the dollar-based financial system, has in recent years experienced a sharp decline in the value of the rial. Nevertheless, oil revenues remain the country’s main source of foreign currency and, according to estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, reached 53 billion dollars in 2023.
The Iranian regime has faced multiple crises over the past year, including a 12-day war with Israel, U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities, widespread anti-regime protests, and their bloody suppression. These developments, Reuters said, have led to new threats of military action by U.S. President Donald Trump and increased scrutiny of Iran’s financial flows.
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The role of the IRGC and the Central Bank
Reuters writes that cryptocurrency wallet addresses are recorded pseudonymously on the blockchain, making it difficult to identify users’ identities and locations. Researchers estimate cryptocurrency activity using data such as web traffic and addresses attributed by countries like the United States and Israel to sanctioned entities.
According to Chainalysis estimates, about 50% of Iran’s cryptocurrency volume last year was linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an entity that plays a key role in Iran’s regime’s political, military, and economic structure and maintains close ties to the regime’s supreme leader. By contrast, TRM Labs believes that about 95% of cryptocurrency flows linked to Iran belong to retail investors, although the firm has said it has identified more than 5,000 cryptocurrency addresses linked to the IRGC and estimates that the IRGC has moved about 3 billion dollars in cryptocurrency since 2023.
The British firm Elliptic reported last month that the Central Bank of Iran, which itself is subject to international sanctions, purchased at least 507 million dollars’ worth of the USDT stablecoin in 2025, an action the company described as a sophisticated strategy to bypass the global banking system.
Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, said that even if a cryptocurrency wallet is identified or sanctioned, its owners can easily create new wallets, a factor that makes the task of U.S. officials very difficult. Tom Keating also described this trend as a fast-paced game of cat and mouse that requires extensive resources.
Ordinary users and domestic exchanges
According to researchers, ordinary Iranian citizens have also turned to cryptocurrency due to the sharp decline in the value of the rial. Cryptocurrency activity increased during periods of social and geopolitical instability last year, especially during protests, until the government shut down the internet on January 8.
Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, told Reuters that about 15 million people in Iran are in some way involved with or use cryptocurrencies. The exchange said it has 11 million customers and that most activity is related to retail investors. Nobitex emphasized that for many users, cryptocurrencies serve as a “store of value” against the continuous decline of the national currency.
Researchers at the Singapore-based firm Nansen also reported that some Iranians moved their assets out of Nobitex and transferred them to international exchanges in 2025. According to the firm, the data show that cryptocurrency in Iran is gradually becoming a structural channel for capital flight.
