Iran is continuing to use bitcoin as a way to skirt international sanctions, with the country's central bank turning a blind eye to the activity, according to a new report.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Iran has been using cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, to settle cross-border transactions through Iranian crypto exchanges, after the central bank advised citizens to do whatever necessary to support the economy.

Citing conversations with businesses, regime insiders, and analysts, the newspaper said the central bank had “quietly encouraged traders” to get money flowing into the struggling economy. Bitcoin is proving to be a tried and tested way of doing so.

One business insider reportedly told the newspaper that the central bank does not ask any questions about how money is transferred.

Iran has been under sanctions for decades, but a sharp escalation beginning in late 2025 — including a UN snapback, European Union measures, and expanded U.S. energy sanctions — intensified the pressure. Measures of this kind typically wall a country's banks off from the global financial system, making conventional cross-border payments difficult to route. That was compounded by war with the U.S. and Israel starting in February 2026, as well as a naval blockade that has cut the country's oil exports by more than 80%.

Iran also has one of the highest inflation rates in the world.

Earlier this year, Iran launched a bitcoin-backed insurance service for the country's shipping companies.

In July, the U.S. said it had frozen crypto linked to the Iranian regime, mostly in the form of Tether's stablecoin. Stablecoins such as Tether's USDT can be frozen by the company that issues them, but bitcoin — decentralized and without a single issuer — cannot. Bitcoin has no such chokepoint: transactions settle on a public blockchain maintained by a decentralized network of computers around the world, with no issuing company or central operator for authorities to pressure.

Also in July, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said Iran had been evading sanctions by accepting payment in bitcoin from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. OFAC said at the time that Hormuz Safe, a platform developed by Iran's Ministry of Economy, “accepts payment in Bitcoin and other digital assets” in order to bypass sanctions.

Taken together, the FT report and OFAC's disclosures illustrate both bitcoin's appeal to a sanctioned state and the boundaries of U.S. enforcement: assets with an issuing company at the center, like USDT, can be frozen, while bitcoin's decentralized design leaves no equivalent lever.

The U.S. and Israel struck Iran in February 2026. Fighting has continued in phases since, punctuated by a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire in April and a short-lived memorandum in June. Both ultimately collapsed, and there is currently no ceasefire in place. Against that backdrop, the channels described in the report — domestic exchanges, the shipping insurance service, and platforms like Hormuz Safe — are the routes Iran is using to keep money moving.

This article is based on reporting by Mathew Di Salvo, first published by Bitcoin Magazine.