Iran’s crypto trades fall as hacks and power gaps bite

Iran’s flagship exchange, Nobitex, lost more than $90 million in June when hackers drained multiple chains. The hit shook user trust and cut daily volumes by a third within a week. Weeks later, Tether froze 42 addresses tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), blocking stablecoin rails many Iranians use for cross-border trade. The blacklist also trapped funds parked at Nobitex, deepening the liquidity crunch.

Energy pressure piled on. Officials say illegal or subsidized mining now burns up to 2,000 MW – roughly two nuclear reactors’ output – forcing summer blackouts and fresh shutdown orders. New directives let police seize rigs running off-grid power, pushing many miners offshore or underground.

Regulation remains half-open. Tehran legalized licensed platforms in January, but every cryptoflow must pass central-bank gateways, adding friction and KYC fears. Traders who once moved funds freely now split tickets or switch to informal hawala channels, diluting visible volume.

A pro-Israel group hit Bank Sepah and Nobitex during June’s regional flare-up, showing that exchanges can be military targets. Many users pulled coins into cold wallets, shrinking exchange order books even further. Add inflation. The rial keeps sliding, but locals choose dollars or gold over volatile crypto after last year’s 60% BTC drawdown. Google search interest for “buy USD” now beats “buy bitcoin” in Persian.

Iran’s crypto volumes fell 11% in early 2025 – now at $3.7 billion from January through July – versus the prior year. The steepest drops came in June, when inflows fell by over 50%, then in July by more than 76% year-on-year. This coincided with mounting pressure: nuclear talks collapsed, a 12-day conflict with Israel began on June 13, and widespread power outages struck – some triggered by cyber and kinetic attacks, others by regime-directed shutdowns.

The Nobitex hack on June 18 was a major blow. Pro‑Israel group Predatory Sparrow siphoned ~$90 million and burned it via vanity addresses bearing anti‑IRGC slogans. It felt more political than profit-driven – a sabotage of Iran’s digital finance infrastructure. Even after the hack, Nobitex still processed 87% of crypto flows tied to Iran in 2025 alone, roughly $3 billion traded there. Two-thirds of that volume ran over TRON (mostly TRC‑20 USDT), revealing reliance on a single chain and a single platform.

Then came Tether’s record freeze of 42 Iranian-linked wallets – many tied to the Nobitex breach. This sucked liquidity and disrupted settlements. That forced traders to shift to DAI on Polygon, fracturing local trading rails.

Not all was illicit. TRM Labs says suspicious activity made up just 0.9% of Iranian crypto exchange volume – on par with global averages. That suggests most users were everyday folks using crypto against fiat inflation, not sanctions evaders.

Iran’s crypto market shows both fragility and adaptability. When central rails fail – from hacks or freezes – users react fast, shifting to alternatives like DAI or peer-to-peer swaps. But the concentration on Nobitex and TRON left the system brittle.

Still, crypto endures as a lifeline. Even under sanctions, conflict, and technical blackout, people move value out – proof of crypto’s resilience, though under constant shock.