📈 🇮🇷 Explosive growth of crypto activity in Iran
The cryptocurrency activity in Iran surged in 2025, reaching estimated levels between $8 billion and $10 billion in annual volume according to analyses by firms like TRM Labs and Chainalysis. This represents considerable growth compared to previous years and shows that both retail investors and state-linked actors have significantly increased their use of crypto.
Furthermore, about 15 million Iranians — out of a population of ~86 million — are estimated to have had exposure to crypto assets, according to estimates cited by Reuters.
📉 Why is the use of crypto rising?
🪙 1. Devaluation of the rial
The local currency, the Iranian rial, has suffered a dramatic depreciation against the US dollar in recent years. This has led many citizens to seek assets that preserve purchasing power outside the local monetary system.
📊 In this context, assets like Bitcoin and stablecoins offer a way to preserve value when the national currency loses its purchasing power.
🟡 2. International sanctions and need for liquidity
Due to economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries, Iran is largely disconnected from the traditional international banking system (like SWIFT). This makes it difficult for the country to access dollars or move capital conventionally.
🔹 In response, the Central Bank of Iran and other entities seem to have acquired cryptocurrencies or stablecoins like USDT to try to maintain liquidity in dollars and facilitate international trade.
In 2025, it was reported that the Central Bank purchased over $500 million in USDT as part of this strategy, using reserves to support the domestic market and find alternative payment methods due to the blockade of international banks.
👥 3. Use by individuals
Aside from institutional or state use, millions of Iranian citizens have turned to cryptocurrencies as a mechanism to protect their savings against inflation and currency depreciation.
This has coincided with social protests, internet blockages, and internal economic tensions, where many users have withdrawn Bitcoin from exchanges to personal wallets seeking to directly hold their crypto assets.
🔍 4. International interest and scrutiny
The growth of crypto activity in Iran has caught the attention of authorities in the United States and other jurisdictions, concerned about the possibility that local platforms or actors are using crypto to evade sanctions or move funds outside of international controls.
However, there are differences in estimates regarding how much of this activity is linked to state or military entities — for example, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — versus activity by ordinary users.
🧠 What does this surge mean?
📌 As a store of value
For many citizens, Bitcoin and stablecoins represent an alternative to a severely weakened national financial system. This is a way to protect themselves from inflation and the loss of purchasing power of the rial.
📌 As a tool for evading sanctions
Although many users are individuals, there is also evidence of institutional or state use to circumvent financial barriers imposed by sanctions and find liquidity routes in global markets.
📌 Risks and challenges
International authorities are monitoring and trying to track these activities.
Restrictions on exchanges or blocking stablecoin accounts can impact how capital moves on-chain.
