The government relies on this crypto infrastructure for international trade, while ordinary Iranians use it as a financial lifeline during protests and economic crises.

Iran has built a multibillion-dollar parallel economy using state-sponsored Bitcoin mining and stablecoins to bypass the U.S. dollar, heavily driven by the IRGC.

The government relies on this crypto infrastructure for international trade, while ordinary Iranians use it as a financial lifeline during protests and economic crises.

Recent military strikes threaten Iran's fragile power grid, which is essential to sustaining the energy-intensive mining operations that keep this financial channel open.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the primary branch of the country’s military, has since deepened its role in the space. Chainalysis estimates IRGC-linked addresses accounted for more than 50% of total Iranian crypto inflows in the fourth quarter of 2025, with over $3 billion in value received last year.