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Iran’s central bank has secretly bought more than $500 million of the USDT stablecoin Tether as the country’s currency crisis deepens, according to new findings from cryptocurrency security firm Elliptec.
The transactions point to a national effort to stabilize the collapsing rial and keep trade flowing while unraveling the global banking system.
Explain the Iranian riyal crisis
Elliptic said They specified A network of cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has collected at least $507 million in USDT until 2025.
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The number represents a lower limit, since the analysis only includes portfolios assigned with high confidence.
The Iranian currency crisis has intensified During the past yearThe riyal fell to historic lows on the open market.
By early 2026, the exchange rate had deteriorated to levels where… Wiping up the purchasing power of the riyal In practice, this increased people’s anger and led to panic in the market.
Although the real has not technically collapsed to “zero”, its rapid decline has made it almost unusable for international trade and savings.
Multiple exchange rates, high inflation and loss of confidence have pushed businesses and households towards the dollar, gold and alternatives linked to digital currencies.
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The pressures resulting from the sanctions have exacerbated the crisis. Restricting access to clearing dollars and corresponding banks severely limited Iran’s ability to use its foreign exchange reserves, even when oil revenues were available.
Elliptic tracks USDT purchases until 2025
The Elliptic team has revealed leaked documents that appear The central bank will make two purchases of USDT in April and May 2025And its value has been paid In UAE Dirham (AED). The timing coincides with increasing pressure on the riyal and renewed volatility in currency markets.
The Elliptic team used these documents as a starting point, mapping the broad infrastructure of central bank governors. The analysis showed that there was a systematic accumulation of stablecoins, rather than a random use of cryptocurrencies.
Initial trust on local stock exchanges
Until mid-2025, most of the central bank’s actions flow from… USDT to NobitexThe largest cryptocurrency trading platform in Iran. Nubitex allows users to hold USDT, exchange it with other digital assets, or sell it for Riyals.
This model suggests that the central bank initially used the platform as a domestic liquidity channel. USDT served as a parallel reserve to the dollar that could be converted into the local currency when needed.
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This strategy was very risky.
The strategy changes after a big encounter
June 2025 marked a sudden change in the movement of money. The Elliptic team discovered that USDT was no longer essentially passing through Nubitex, but was being transferred via… Bridges between blockchainswith the transfer of assets from TRON to Ethereum.
Money then began to circulate on decentralized platforms, moving between different networks, and crossing certain central platforms. This pattern continued until the end of 2025.
This change was followed by a $90 million hack of the Nubitex platform on June 18, 2025, carried out by… The pro-Israel group Gunjiske Darande.
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The group accused Nobitex of facilitating the evasion of sanctions and claimed that it destroyed the stolen goods.
Local allegations raise data security concerns
Iranian media Intensified Verification of central bank operations regarding digital currencies.
Entrepreneur Babak Zanjani recently said that the central bank bought USDT to manage the foreign exchange market and transferred the funds to wallets linked to one of the branches of National Banking Technologies.
Babak Zanjani wrote: The worrying point is that for every wallet to which we transferred Tether, the address of our wallet was in a short period either exposed to hostile networks or placed on Israel’s sanctions and confiscation lists. This raises a serious and fundamental question: Is there a leak of information in the central bank, or is Israel secretly monitoring the structure and operations of the central bank?
Zanjani charged that the governor’s addresses were quickly exposed and then reported by hostile parties, raising concerns for… Leakage of information in sensitive financial institutions.
The allegations, while not substantiated, have increased the demands for transparency from the central bank and its technical partners.
