Having been under sanctions for 40 years, Iran has not collapsed; instead, it has bypassed the entire US dollar system.

Recently, the situation in Iran, if you've been following the news, probably gives you a somewhat uneasy feeling:
Domestic protests are erupting one after another,
Hassan Rouhani's rule shows cracks,
Trump has returned to the center stage,
The window for Israel's military strikes against Iran has been reopened.
This is no longer a question of "whether sanctions will continue,"
but rather: whether to directly strike through Iran.
But while everyone is focused on airstrikes, decapitations, regime changes, I’ve been pondering a colder question:
👉 If Iran is truly hit to the point where its traditional financial system is completely paralyzed, what does it rely on to survive now?
The answer might make many uncomfortable.
Not the US dollar.
Not international banks.
Not even just oil.
But—cryptocurrency.
一、Iran, the “veteran of the sanctions era”
Many people's understanding of sanctions still lingers in the old logic:
Freezing assets → Cutting off settlements → Banking blockade → National collapse.
But Iran has faced this environment many times before.
Over the past 40 years, Iran has almost experienced the most comprehensive financial blockade experiment in the world:
Kicked out of the US dollar system
Cut off from SWIFT
Foreign banks dare not touch
Almost all formal settlement channels have failed
In this environment, Iran did not wait for negotiations nor rely on sympathy, but chose a very pragmatic path:
👉 Since it can't enter the old system, then build one that still works yourself.
二、From gray finance to on-chain channels
Initially, this system was gray:
Shadow fleets, shell companies, informal remittance networks, cash carriers...
The only goal:
Let money move, let goods come in.
But this route is inefficient, risky, and increasingly difficult to sustain.
The real turning point happened in 2018:
The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal
Imposed “secondary sanctions” on Iran
In the same year, Iran’s domestic crypto trading platforms began to operate at scale
From that moment on, cryptocurrencies were no longer “private speculative tools,”
but officially incorporated into the national toolkit.
Not an experiment,
Not exploration,
But: a backup financial system.
三、Crypto begins to embed into the state machinery
Many still mistakenly believe:
“Iran uses crypto because young people are hedging risks and trading.”
That’s just the surface.
The real importance is—
Cryptocurrencies have been embedded into Iran’s national operational system.
They are used to:
Pay for imports that cannot be settled through banks
Circumvent the US dollar for cross-border transfers
Make up for fiscal revenue cut off by sanctions
Send funds overseas
When the banking system shuts you out,
Blockchain becomes the only working channel.
四、Energy → Crypto: the most critical step
What truly sustains this system is energy.
What does Iran lack?
Almost everything.
But it does not lack electricity, oil, or gas.
What if it can't sell them?
Iran chose the most direct route:
👉 Turn energy directly into crypto assets.
Mining with surplus electricity is essentially:
Transforming blocked energy
into a globally circulating value unit.
This is not “speculating on coins,”
but a redefinition of currency and settlement rights under sanctions.
Where do these funds ultimately flow?
One part: To sustain Iran’s own imports and exports
Another part: To fill the long-term sanction-induced fiscal gaps
And another part: To flow into Iran’s long-standing proxy networks in the Middle East
Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi armed groups, Iraqi militias...
What you see in the news are just names,
but the funding chains behind them are increasingly detaching from traditional financial systems.
Here, the role of crypto is not “anonymity fantasy,”
but part of war logistics.
五、This is not just Iran’s path
More concerning is:
This is not just Iran’s choice.
Iran, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea...
These countries long under sanctions and excluded from the US dollar system
are gradually forming an alternative financial network that can serve and connect with each other.
This is not conspiracy theory,
but a natural result of overusing sanctions tools.
Conclusion
That’s why I say:
👉 Iran’s significance to the crypto world is far more than just “application scenarios.”
It truly proves one thing:
When a country is completely expelled from the old order,
Blockchain is not idealism,
but the last practical tool that still works.
If Iran truly moves toward full confrontation,
the first to feel the impact may not be oil prices,
nor the stock market.
Most likely, it will be on-chain.
Sanctions do not eliminate conflict,
they only force the world
to start building new tracks outside the old system.
And Iran,
has already taken the lead on that path.