
Sanctioned nations moved $100B+ in crypto in 2025, eightfold increase from 2024. Chainalysis says crypto changed sanctions evasion. Exchanges face growing compliance risks.
Countries under U.S. sanctions moved more than $100 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing industry estimates. That figure is nearly eight times the amount received in 2024, according to analytics firm Chainalysis.
Sanctioned nations including Iran, North Korea and Russia have established their own digital tokens and crypto exchanges to process transactions, crypto companies and Western authorities told the Journal. “Crypto has changed the sanctions evasion game significantly,” said Kaitlin Martin, a senior intelligence analyst at Chainalysis.
Western officials and crypto analytics firms said Iran and Russia used digital assets to pay for drones and weapon parts. Russia also used crypto to pay crews smuggling its oil around the world. North Korea, accused of stealing crypto through hacks, purchased fuel and military equipment with the virtual currency, officials told the Journal.
A ruble-backed stablecoin, the A7A5 token, became a key channel. The European Union later sanctioned it. At its peak, about $2 billion a week flowed through that token, said Eric Jardine, Chainalysis head of research. “Once that happened at scale, you were starting to see about $2 billion a week being processed via that token,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Journal that Russia views sanctions as illegal and has “deployed and developed alternative mechanisms that allow the economy to function normally.” North Korea called allegations of cybercrimes “absurd slander.”
Western authorities are struggling to keep pace. Crypto adoption for sanctions evasion is growing. The U.S. has waived sanctions on Iranian oil while working on a peace deal. It could reinstate them if talks fail.
Jardine said nation-state actors command far more resources than typical criminals. “With nation-state actors, the resources that support their efforts are significantly higher than you’d find with most run-of-the-mill illicit actors,” he said.
As global crypto regulation tightens, the risk extends to any intermediary that may unknowingly handle flows from sanctioned entities.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.