Withdrawals from Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, surged after coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes hit Tehran on Saturday. Data tracked by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic showed that Iranian users pulled more than $500,000 in crypto within minutes of the first strikes, and the total later climbed to nearly $3 million between Feb. 28 and March 1, a jump of more than 700%.
Elliptic tied the spike to the use of digital assets as a channel for moving money out of the country. With traditional financial routes disrupted by the ongoing conflict, crypto has become one of the remaining ways for some users to shift capital abroad. Nobitex allows rials to be converted into cryptoassets and then withdrawn to external wallets, a process that can avoid part of the scrutiny tied to the global banking system.
Rial weakness adds pressure to move funds
The report said Iran’s national currency, the rial, has remained under pressure for months and reached a new low on Feb. 19. Against that backdrop, some local users have redirected funds to overseas cryptoasset exchanges, several of which have reportedly seen notable inflows from Iran. A Chainalysis report published last year also found that Iranian crypto outflows rose 70% year over year, driven largely by individuals looking for financial security.
Elliptic added that sharp increases in crypto outflows from Nobitex have appeared at other moments this year as well. One recent example came during the Jan. 9 demonstrations. At that time, an internet blackout imposed by the regime sharply reduced exchange activity and limited the visible outflows that could be observed on-chain.
Internet blackout complicates the picture
TRM Labs reported a similar pattern over the weekend but interpreted the activity differently. The firm said Iran’s internet connectivity fell by roughly 99% after the strikes began. Under those conditions, TRM described the market response not as capital flight, but as a drop in both transactions and trading volume caused by the blackout.
Nobitex remains the biggest crypto exchange in Iran. According to Elliptic, the platform handled about $7.2 billion in cryptoasset transactions in 2025 alone. Last year, it was hacked by the pro-Israel group Predatory Sparrow, an attack that caused losses of more than $90 million. The breach severely damaged liquidity for both retail and institutional users, slowed transaction processing, and weakened confidence in the market.