Iran’s Central Bank Acquired $507M in Tether’s USDT Stablecoin: Elliptic

In brief

Research from blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic indicates that Iran’s central bank acquired over $500 million in USDT last year.
All of the identified USDT has now left Iran-linked wallets, with the central bank having used the stablecoin to support the price of the Iranian rial.
Elliptic affirms that the use of stablecoins and blockchain may hinder rather than help sanctions evasion.

The Central Bank of Iran acquired $507 million in Tether’s stablecoin USDT over the past year, as part of efforts to shore up the Iranian rial and settle international trade.

This is according to research by UK-based blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic, which has identified a network of cryptocurrency wallets that Iran’s central bank used to receive the USDT.

Leaked documents seen by Elliptic indicate that the CBI acquired USDT via two purchases in April and May of last year, making payment in UAE dirhams.

Speaking to Decrypt, Elliptic co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson explained that the leaked documents detail purchases made via an entity called Modex, which he suggests may be a crypto broker that is willing to do business with the Iranian government.

“We don’t have visibility of the other sources but other OTC brokers are likely to be involved,” he said.

On the basis of the leads provided by the leaked documents, Elliptic has been able to construct a map of the CBI’s wallet network, which reveals a “systematic” accumulation of USDT amounting to at least $507 million.

The blog warns that this latter figure should be regarded as a “lower bound,” since it excludes wallets that couldn’t be attributed to the central bank with a high level of confidence.

Elliptic’s research also details how the CBI used the USDT once it had acquired it, with most being transferred to Iran’s largest exchange, Nobitex.

However, this changed after June 2025, when pro-Israel hackers drained Nobitex of over $90 million in crypto.

After this hack, Elliptic reports that CBI-linked wallets sent their USDT to “a cross-chain bridge service” that converted the tokens from TRON-based USDT to Ethereum-based USDT.

The resulting USDT was then sent to various decentralized exchanges and converted into other digital assets, before being moved to other blockchains and to centralized exchanges.

This lasted until the end of 2025, with the $507 million in USDT ultimately leaving CBI-linked wallets.

“There is no USDT remaining in the wallets we’ve directly tied to the CBI,” Tom Robinson told Decrypt. “However, the CBI may well have other wallets that we’re currently unaware of.”

Stablizing the rial

Elliptic’s blog also goes on to explain why the Iranian central bank may have wanted USDT, with the company suggesting that the main reason was to stabilize the price of the Iranian rial on foreign exchange markets.

As the report reads, “The routing of funds to Nobitex indicates a strategy of injecting US dollar liquidity into the local market to prop up the rial.”

Beyond that, it’s also likely that Iran used its USDT to settle international trades, since sanctions against the country prevent it from accessing SWIFT and other financial settlement infrastructure.

“Beyond domestic intervention, the CBI also appears to be constructing a ‘sanctions-proof’ banking mechanism that replicates the utility of international dollar accounts,” the blog states. “By treating USDT as “digital off-book eurodollar accounts”, the regime creates a shadow financial layer capable of holding US dollar value outside the reach of U.S. authorities.”

Despite highlighting Iran’s use of USDT to operate financially in spite of sanctions, Elliptic also affirms that the transparency and programmability of stablecoins may actually “enable even more powerful sanctions enforcement.”

Its blog notes that Tether acted to disable wallets associated with the CBI in June of last year, ultimately freezing around $37 million in USDT.

Speaking to Decrypt, Tether said that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards the illicit use of USDT and its other tokens, and that it works closely with law enforcement throughout the world to identify and freeze assets associated with illegal activity.

The company said, “To date, Tether has collaborated with more than 310 law enforcement agencies across 62 countries and frozen over $3.8 billion in assets linked to criminal activity.”