Report: Central Bank of Iran purchased over $500 million in crypto assets in the past year to address the rial crisis

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, an Elliptic 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 circumvent US sanctions.

The analytics firm stated that the Central Bank of Iran made two USDT purchases 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 restricted oil exports, inability to repatriate export revenues, and exclusion from the SWIFT system, Iran's foreign exchange reserves have continued to decrease, undermining the central bank's ability to defend the value of the rial and curb inflation. The use of stablecoins helps Iran establish a "sanctions-resistant" banking mechanism and forms a "shadow financial layer" that can hold dollar value and is not subject to US authorities' oversight. Previously, Chainalysis reported that the scale of Iran's cryptocurrency ecosystem grew to about $7.78 billion in 2025.