Report: The Central Bank of Iran has purchased over 500 million USD in cryptocurrency assets in the past year to address the rial crisis

According to a report by Bloomberg, Elliptic's report shows that the Central Bank of Iran has purchased over $500 million worth of dollar-pegged digital assets in the past year to cope with the currency crisis and evade U.S. sanctions.

The analysis company stated that the Central Bank of Iran made two purchases of USDT in April and May 2025, with the initial funds flowing to an Iranian crypto exchange where users can hold, trade USDT, or exchange it for rials.

The report pointed out that due to limited oil exports, the inability to repatriate export revenues, and exclusion from the SWIFT system, Iran's foreign exchange reserves have been continuously decreasing, impairing the central bank's ability to defend the rial's value and curb inflation. The use of stablecoins helps Iran establish a "sanctions-resistant" banking mechanism and form a "shadow financial layer" that can hold dollar value without being regulated by U.S. authorities. Previously, Chainalysis reported that the scale of Iran's cryptocurrency ecosystem grew to approximately $7.78 billion in 2025.