The Central Bank of Iran intends to restrict rial bank accounts and payment gateways utilized by local cryptocurrency exchanges. The regulator cites concerns regarding market manipulation in Tether trading as the primary driver for these measures.
These actions follow earlier temporary restrictions introduced in late September 2026. Those rules limited daily USDT purchases to 2,000 per user and suspended trading between 21:00 and 09:00 Tehran time. Platforms such as Nobitex, Wallex, Ramzinex, and Bitpin were subject to these constraints.
Tether has previously taken action against wallets linked to the Iranian central bank. The company froze $344 million in April 2026 and $131 million in July 2026. Analytics firm Elliptic reported that over $507 million in USDT acquisitions were connected to Iranian entities.
The potential loss of banking access poses an operational risk to domestic exchanges, as it directly impacts their ability to process rial-to-crypto conversions. Users currently face pressure from both international token issuers and local regulatory authorities.
