Iran rial falls past 2 million as US targets bitcoin mining

Iran's rial fell to a record 2.02 million per dollar Monday as the Trump administration prepared sanctions that, for the first time, target digital assets and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' bitcoin mining operations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the coming measures as an "economic D-Day" and "the toughest sanctions in history," writing in the Financial Times that "President Trump decimated Iran's economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher."

The package targets five sectors — digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping — according to the Treasury Department. Iran's official central bank rate stood near 1.5 million rials per dollar, but the market rate is what most Iranians pay. The currency has lost about half its value since the start of the year, with rice up 60 percent and beef more than 150 percent since U.S.-Israeli strikes began Feb. 28.

The digital-assets designation threatens the IRGC's bitcoin mining operations, which have served as a sanctions workaround. If IRGC-linked facilities are forced offline, a meaningful share of global hashrate could be disrupted, potentially shifting network difficulty and hashprice.

The IRGC's mining lifeline

Iran's bitcoin mining sector has grown into a billion-dollar industry, with the IRGC controlling a large share of facilities that convert cheap subsidized electricity into bitcoin. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control already administers an extensive Iran sanctions program, with designations announced Aug. 20, Aug. 7 and July 29. Monday's package extends that reach to digital assets for the first time, a precedent that could raise compliance costs for exchanges and mining pools handling Iranian-linked flows.

A currency under siege

The rial's slide reflects an economy the IMF forecasts will contract more than 5 percent this year. Iranian oil shipments to China, the leading buyer, have fallen to roughly 534,000 barrels per day in August from more than 1 million earlier in the year, Reuters reported, citing Kpler data. The United Arab Emirates, Iran's largest trading partner, suspended all trade with Tehran last week.

Iran retains leverage through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil transited before the conflict. Iran is refusing to fully reopen the waterway unless it can charge ships, and is reportedly in final talks with Oman on joint management. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei warned Monday that "any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences."

For crypto markets, the sanctions mark the first time Washington has explicitly targeted digital assets as a sanctions workaround in Iran, a move that could push mining operations to relocate or force exchanges to tighten compliance around Iranian-linked addresses. The precedent also raises the risk that regulators extend similar scrutiny to mining infrastructure in other high-risk jurisdictions.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.