Iran's central bank has eased foreign-currency controls to encourage businesses to repatriate overseas earnings, including through cryptocurrency, as US sanctions tighten, according to a Financial Times report.
Under the revised framework, exporters may use their foreign-currency income to finance imports directly, bypassing the government's exchange platform and its official rates. The central bank also permits settlements through Tether's USDT and Bitcoin (BTC) routed via Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Central Bank of Iran did not respond to requests for comment.
The relaxation comes amid intensifying US enforcement against Iran's crypto-linked financial activity. In early June, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said US authorities had seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency assets. On July 14, Bessent added that a freeze had been placed on more than $130 million in crypto held in wallets linked to Iran's central bank.
That same month, the US Treasury sanctioned four Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges as part of its "Economic Fury" campaign.
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs had earlier reported in June that more than $3.8 billion in flows moved over seven years between the exchange CoinEx and sanctioned Iranian entities. CoinEx denied having any commercial relationship with the Iranian government or domestic Iranian exchanges and stated it had never provided funding channels to sanctioned parties.
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