A new investigation by blockchain transaction analysis company 'Elliptic' has revealed that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has acquired at least $507 million of the USDT stablecoin linked to the US dollar, using it as a tool to circumvent international sanctions.
The report provides a practical model of how a sanctioned country can create a financial layer that operates outside the traditional banking system.
According to Elliptic, which stated that it mapped the architecture of wallets linked to the central bank based on leaked documents, USDT was used for two main purposes:
Intervention in the local currency exchange market.
Trade settlement in a way that is less susceptible to sanctions constraints.
Data on the network indicates that until June 2025, the central bank was transferring large amounts of USDT to the Nobitex platform (the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Iran), aiming to inject dollar liquidity into the local market and support the rial during a period of acute economic turmoil.
At the same time, the report states that authorities collected USDT to build what resembles off-the-books digital Euro-Dollar accounts, allowing for a semi-closed settlement system where import payments and export revenues are settled in equivalents of the dollar, while reducing the risks of asset seizure through traditional banking channels.
But this approach changed abruptly in June 2025 after Nobitex suffered a hack claimed by a group loyal to Israel that described the platform as a tool for violating sanctions.
After that, the central bank stopped transferring funds through the platform and turned to using cross-network bridges and decentralized platforms to move assets and hide their paths to a greater extent.
And despite attempts to evade restrictions, Elliptic emphasized that the activity is not entirely invisible, as stablecoins operate on public networks that can be analytically tracked.
The report also highlighted a sensitive point:
The issuer of the stablecoin has direct leverage.
On June 15, 2025, Tether banned wallets linked to the Iranian central bank and froze about 37 million dollars of USDT, illustrating that stablecoins provide a means of circumvention on one hand, but also offer a centralized control point on the other.
