Iran‘s central bank acquired $507M in USDt to prop up rial: Elliptic

Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic reported that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) acquired more than half a billion dollars worth of Tether’s USDt, with indications that the stablecoins were used to prop up the country’s fiat currency.

In a Wednesday report, Elliptic said Iran’s central bank had about $507 million in USDt (USDT), the US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Tether. According to the platform, it was likely that the bank used the digital assets to address the collapse of Iran’s rial or settle international trade.

“The CBI's accumulation of USDT began in earnest during a period of extreme economic volatility,” said Elliptic. “The value of the rial had halved in just eight months, to a record low against the dollar (at the time). Iran's central bank may have attempted to stem this decline by buying rials with USDT on Nobitex, effectively using cryptoassets to perform open market operations that would usually be conducted with cash reserves.”

Source: Elliptic

Crypto exchange Nobitex, one of the largest in Iran, handled the central bank’s USDt until June 2025, when the company suffered a security breach. According to Elliptic, CBI’s crypto strategy shifted, sending its USDt “to a cross-chain bridge service to move the funds from TRON to Ethereum,” later exchanging it for other assets and moving to other blockchains and exchanges. 

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Elliptic noted that Tether likely still has the ability to freeze accounts holding USDt, citing an incident from June 2025 when “several wallets linked to the CBI were blacklisted.” About $37 million worth of USDt was frozen at that time.

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Chainalysis reported that the country’s crypto ecosystem surged to more than $7.8 billion in 2025, with many locals turning to digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) as a safe haven amid economic instability and inflation.

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