Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) may play an underrated role in the recent protests in Iran, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard reportedly moving $1 billion through crypto exchanges to evade sanctions.
Currency Collapse Drives Mass Bitcoin Adoption
The Iranian rial crashed to a record 1.42 million per U.S. dollar in late December, having lost over 40% of its value since June 2025.
While ordinary citizens flee economic collapse, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been using cryptocurrency for a different purpose: evading international sanctions.
TRM Labs identified Zedcex and Zedxion, two UK-registered exchanges, as key facilitators of IRGC transactions. IRGC-linked activity accounted for 56% of total volume on these platforms between 2023 and 2025.
The vast majority of transactions used Tether’s USDT stablecoin on the Tron (CRYPTO: TRX) blockchain.
IRGC crypto transactions surged dramatically: from $24 million in 2023 to $619 million in 2024, and $410 million through early 2025. TRM Labs traced funds through 187 sanctioned wallet addresses.
In one notable case, investigators identified a $10 million payment from an IRGC wallet to accounts funding Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Between Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, these organizations are now using cryptocurrency at previously unseen scales, with total identified volumes exceeding $2 billion.
Iran Offers Crypto Payments For Weapons Sales
Adding another dimension to Iran’s crypto strategy, the country is now openly advertising weapons sales with cryptocurrency payment options.
According to promotional materials from the Ministry of Defence Export Center (Mindex), Iran is offering ballistic missiles, drones, and warships with crypto payment capabilities.
Mindex claims relationships with 35 countries, though their identities remain undisclosed.
Security analysts note it’s extraordinarily rare for a country to openly advertise cryptocurrency payments for strategic military equipment.
Why This Matters For Bitcoin And Crypto Markets
The Iranian crisis validates Bitcoin’s value proposition as censorship-resistant money during currency collapse.
However, the internet shutdown exposes a critical vulnerability: Bitcoin requires infrastructure that authoritarian regimes can shut down.
The $1 billion IRGC operation demonstrates cryptocurrency’s evolution from fringe asset to tool of statecraft.
Between Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, these organizations are using cryptocurrency at scales previously unseen, with total identified volumes currently standing at over $2 billion.
For Ethereum, the IRGC’s choice of USDT on Tron rather than Ethereum highlights competition: lower fees and faster settlement make alternative chains more attractive for moving large sums under sanctions.
This fragments the crypto ecosystem and challenges Ethereum’s DeFi dominance.
The situation positions XRP as potentially favored by regulators because its compliance-focused design makes it less attractive to sanctioned actors, while still offering speed and low costs for legitimate cross-border commerce.
Polymarket traders assign about a 17% chance that Khamenei will be removed from power by the end of January, with trading volume spiking to $4.7 million in four days.
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$BTCBitcoin$90275.55-0.82%Overview$ETHEthereum$3071.33-1.04%$TRXTRON$0.29761.00%$XRPRipple$2.08-1.74%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
