Iran's Ministry of Defense has just begun accepting cryptocurrency payments for ballistic missiles.
This is not a rumor, nor speculation.
Public transactions. Drones. Warships. Missiles. Payments made in cryptocurrency.
The first country in history to settle strategic weapons transactions in cryptocurrency.
This is what a regime calls "anti-censorship" when it's desperate.
Here's what's actually happening on the blockchain:
By 2025, Iran's cryptocurrency transaction volume will reach $7.78 billion.
Of that, $3 billion is related to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Preferred payment channel: USDT on TRON.
Why choose TRON? Fees below $1. Settlement in 3 seconds. $75 billion in liquidity.
Perfect for large-scale transfers of regime funds.
Tehran's 5,000 militias brought in from Iraq to suppress protesters?
Their payment channels operate through this infrastructure.
Stablecoins have now become a tool for circumventing sanctions.
In September, Israel seized 187 wallets belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), involving $1.5 billion worth of USDT.
In July, Tether blacklisted 42 Iranian addresses, marking the largest cryptocurrency freeze in Iran to date.
The Central Bank of Iran purchased $507 million worth of USDT to intervene in the rial's exchange rate.
Of this, $37 million was ultimately frozen by Tether.
The Iranian regime is realizing that the limitations of "decentralization" become apparent when Tether cooperates with law enforcement.
Therefore, they are making adjustments.
Migration to DAI. Cross-chain bridges. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
This cat-and-mouse game is accelerating.
Meanwhile, Iranian citizens transferred $4.18 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2024.
A 70% year-on-year increase.
During the protests in January, Bitcoin withdrawals to personal wallets surged.
The same technology, yet with drastically different application scenarios.
Dictators use stablecoins to fund militias.
Citizens use Bitcoin to escape collapsing currencies.
Cryptocurrencies don't take sides. They are infrastructure.
The issue isn't whether cryptocurrencies will encourage criminals.
The issue is whether freezing USDT addresses constitutes "censorship" when the alternative is funding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The stablecoin theory has just undergone an unexpected stress test.