US investigators are examining whether cryptocurrency platforms were used to help Iranian officials and state-linked actors evade sanctions, a blockchain researcher told Reuters, as crypto use rose sharply in Iran amid currency weakness and political unrest.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, said the US Treasury is reviewing whether platforms allowed state-linked players to move money abroad, access hard currency or buy restricted goods.
Estimates of Iran’s crypto activity vary. TRM Labs estimated roughly $10 billion in Iran-linked crypto activity in 2025, compared with $11.4 billion in 2024. Chainalysis said Iranian wallets received a record $7.8 billion in 2025, up from $7.4 billion in 2024 and $3.17 billion in 2023. Researchers cautioned that crypto’s pseudonymous nature makes precise attribution difficult and limits the ability to form a complete picture.
Chainalysis estimated that about half of Iran’s 2025 crypto activity was linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). TRM Labs said it has identified more than 5,000 addresses it labels as IRGC-linked and estimates the Guards have moved about $3 billion worth of crypto since 2023.
Iran’s largest exchange, Nobitex, told Reuters that around 15 million people in Iran have some crypto exposure, with many using digital assets as a store of value as the rial depreciates. Analysts said funds can be moved off Iranian exchanges to wallets and platforms elsewhere, complicating enforcement for US authorities.
In September, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two Iranian financial facilitators and more than a dozen individuals and entities based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for helping coordinate money transfers — including proceeds from Iranian oil sales — that it said benefited the IRGC-Quds Force and Iran’s ministry of defense.
“Iranian ‘shadow banking’ networks like these—run by trusted illicit financial facilitators—abuse the international financial system, and evade sanctions by laundering money through overseas front companies and cryptocurrency,” read the statement.
Gholamreza Derikvand, Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Vienna, had broken with Tehran and is now in Switzerland. There was no immediate comment from Iran’s foreign ministry.
Sources told Iran International that officials at the ministry had avoided discussing the case, with some staff citing security concerns.
Derikvand previously served as charge d’affaires at Iran’s embassy in the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014 and was viewed by colleagues as a career diplomat who could have risen to ambassador.
The move follows a similar case last month in which Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, a senior Iranian diplomat based at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, left his post and sought asylum in Switzerland with his family.
Diplomatic sources said fears linked to Iran’s political unrest and concerns over the stability of the governing system had prompted the decision.
Iran’s space agency chief Hassan Salarieh said the newly unveiled Hatef-3 is a full-scale test model for the planned 24-satellite “Martyr Soleimani” constellation and would be launched once final checks are completed.
Salarieh said Hatef-3 satellite is still considered an “experimental sample because the system must be placed into orbit and its performance be assessed in space.”
Iran is carrying out integration and compatibility tests between the Hatef-3 satellite and the Simorgh launch vehicle, he added, describing a launch by year-end as likely but subject to technical reviews.
According to Salarieh, a space base was also unveiled in Salmas in northwestern Iran and another in Chenaran in the northeast.
Also on Tuesday, Iran’s defense minister said the country must accelerate its space program to close what he described as lingering gaps, warning that falling behind could undermine national governance and independence.
Aziz Nasirzadeh said Iran should prioritize developing an air-launched rocket system and securing a presence in geostationary orbit, calling space a new arena for strategic competition.
The sources said Alijanvand was shot by security forces with two live rounds, one striking his lower back and another his abdomen. His family spent five days searching hospitals, police stations and prisons across Isfahan province before identifying his body in the cold storage at Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery on January 13, the sources said.
According to the sources, Alijanvand's body was transferred later that night, on January 13, to Shahin Shahr's morgue.
Authorities initially refused to hand over the body and sought to have Alijanvand declared a “martyr,” a condition the family rejected, which would have required them to accept the state’s official account of the death rather than acknowledge that he was killed by state security forces.
Alijanvand was eventually buried under heavy security at around 4 a.m. on January 15, in a tightly controlled ceremony at Behesht-e Zahra Chaharbisheh cemetery in his hometown of Masjed Soleyman in southwestern Iran, with only five family members present and several plainclothes agents in attendance, the sources said.
Alijanvand was married and worked as a forklift driver at a brick factory, according to the people familiar with the matter.
“Reza worked from morning until night. He was deeply patriotic and hopeful for Iran’s freedom,” the source said, adding that Alijanvand believed Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi would return to the country.
Last month, Iran International reported that more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces during the January 8-9 crackdown on nationwide protests, making it the deadliest two-day protest massacre in history.
