Fresh U.S. and Israeli strikes have pushed Iran’s parallel financial network back into focus, with bitcoin mining and stablecoin settlement at the center of the system. Chainalysis said Iran’s crypto ecosystem reached $7.78 billion in 2025, expanding faster than it did a year earlier.
Bitcoin mining became part of a state-backed payment channel
Iran legalized crypto mining in 2019 and allowed licensed operators to use subsidized electricity if they sold mined BTC to the central bank. That setup turned bitcoin into a tool for import payments and trade settlement outside the dollar system, even if the mechanism often stayed indirect. Estimates in recent years placed Iran’s share of global bitcoin mining power at 2% to 5%, though much of that activity remains out of public view.
In practice, cheap domestic energy is converted into a borderless asset. A licensed miner produces new bitcoin and transfers it to Iran’s central bank, which can then send it to an overseas counterparty to pay for machinery, fuel, or consumer goods without routing funds through U.S.-controlled banks. The blockchain records the transaction, but the counterparties can still be difficult to identify.
Stablecoins emerged as a second rail for value transfer
Stablecoins hold a central role as well. Separate research from Elliptic found that Iran’s central bank accumulated at least $507 million in USDT during 2025, likely to support trade finance and help steady the rial. The currency picture remains severe: available data shows the rial has lost more than 96% of its value against the U.S. dollar.
Because USDT is pegged to the dollar, moves with lower volatility, and transfers faster than bitcoin, it has become a common settlement instrument in sanctioned economies. Ordinary Iranians have also leaned on crypto. During recent protests and an internet blackout, withdrawals from local exchanges to personal wallets rose sharply.
Chain activity increased during military and domestic flashpoints
Chainalysis said Iranian crypto activity has often surged around military clashes and internal unrest, including last year’s 12-day conflict with Israel. In tense periods, exchange outflows tend to rise as users move funds into wallets under their own control. The firm estimated that addresses linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accounted for more than 50% of total Iranian crypto inflows in the fourth quarter of 2025, and received over $3 billion in value last year.
Those numbers cover only wallets publicly tied to sanctions listings, which means the real footprint could be larger. Chainalysis also reported that inflows to IRGC-linked addresses totaled $2 billion in 2024 and climbed to more than $3 billion in 2025.
Power disruption and compliance pressure remain live risks
If conflict hits the power grid, mining output could fall in the near term. The report said the Iranian state is believed to mine BTC at around $1,300 per coin and then sell it at prevailing market prices. Whether the state holds any bitcoin reserves is still unclear, as there is no treasury dashboard and no official disclosure of holdings. Large mining farms need steady electricity, and Iran has imposed seasonal mining bans in the past to ease pressure on the grid.
Stablecoin flows and exchange controls are also drawing attention. Binance recently faced accusations that it dismissed investigators who raised concerns about funds moving through the exchange to sanctioned entities linked to Iran. The episode led nine U.S. Senate Democrats to ask the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice to examine Binance’s controls tied to illicit finance.