Iran Turns to Crypto Assets to Offset Rial Crisis, Report Says

The Central Bank of Iran bought more than $500 million in dollar-backed digital assets in the past year to mitigate a currency crisis and bypass US sanctions, blockchain analytics company Elliptic said in a report.

The CBI, which is struggling to manage overlapping economic challenges that have triggered deadly protests in recent weeks, made two purchases of Tether’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT in April and May 2025, Elliptic said Wednesday, citing leaked documents and its own research.

Until June 2025, most of the funds went to an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange, where users could hold USDT, trade it for other ...