How the US Plans to Stop Iran From Using Crypto to Evade Sanctions

The White House and US President Donald Trump have once again stressed that stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is a top goal for the administration.

At the same time, the US is pushing to bring crypto further into the mainstream financial system while simultaneously trying to stop Iran from using that same technology to get around traditional banking.

The US is Turning Crypto Into Financial Infrastructure

Chainalysis ranked the United States second globally in its 2025 crypto adoption index. Between July 2024 and June 2025, North America saw about $2.3 trillion in crypto transactions, which is around 26% of the global total for that period.

Additionally, crypto is becoming more institutional, as the rise of Bitcoin ETFs gave regular investors exposure without having to handle the wallets themselves. On top of that, banks and asset managers are rolling out custody and tokenization products, and US regulators are building frameworks to bring digital assets further into the mainstream financial system.

As such, the US approach seems to be a process where crypto gets regulated, then routed through institutions, and finally absorbed into the mainstream financial markets.

This is interesting, considering Iran’s approach is drastically different.