War Stress-Tested Iran’s Crypto System — and Stablecoins Held

[nihalsari]

A month before airstrikes began, Reuters reported that the US Treasury was probing whether crypto platforms were helping Iranian officials evade sanctions. When strikes hit on February 28, Iran’s digital financial rails faced a real-world stress test. According to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, internet connectivity in Iran plunged by roughly 99%, and crypto transaction volumes dropped nearly 80% in the immediate aftermath.

Yet the system did not collapse. Exchanges moved into defensive mode, suspending withdrawals and tightening processing windows. The most revealing step came when Iran’s central bank halted trading in the USDT–toman pair, temporarily cutting off the primary bridge between local currency and dollar-pegged stablecoins. The episode showed not failure, but dependence: stablecoins had become deeply embedded in Iran’s financial infrastructure.

[etfs]

99% internet drop and 80% volume collapse but somehow stablecoins still the backbone that’s wild