#IsraelIranConflict Iranian Sanctions & Crypto Market Access
Since the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Washington has intensified sanctions on Iran—including its financial sector and cryptocurrency dealings. On December 5, 2018, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two Iranian-linked Bitcoin addresses tied to ransomware—marking the first time it targeted crypto wallets (nasdaq.com).
In August 2018, anticipating sanctions, Iran’s government pursued a state-backed crypto, and on August 9, 2022, it processed a $10 million import order via crypto—a move Reuters confirmed as a strategic effort to bypass sanctions (euronews.com).
U.S. enforcement has ramped up: on November 28, 2022, OFAC fined Kraken $362,159 for over 800 transactions tied to Iranian users between October 2015 and June 2019 (axios.com). In May 2023, Poloniex paid $7.6 million for failure to block sanctioned users—including Iranians (decryptregulations.com).
The biggest blow came in November 2023, when Binance agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement. U.S. authorities found the exchange enabled nearly $900 million in transactions between U.S. and Iranian users from 2018 to 2022 (iranintl.com).
Meanwhile, Iran’s Central Bank has repeatedly imposed and lifted fiat-to-crypto restrictions—especially spotlighting late 2024 controls and the January 2025 licensing framework—tightening oversight as digital asset use grows domestically (crystalintelligence.com).
These chronological developments show how sanctions and enforcement have shaped Iran’s crypto landscape—from early wallet designations in 2018 to major fines by 2023. Despite aggressive regulation, Iranians continue using crypto to preserve value and maintain global trade links.
axios.com
wired.com
