Iran is experiencing a currency disaster. By December 2025, exchanging 1 USD will require nearly 1.4 million rials—more than a 95% drop from 32,000 rials in 2015. This is not just a statistical game but a real surge in living costs: food prices have risen 72% in a year, medical expenses have jumped 50%, and ordinary families' savings are rendered useless in the face of inflation.

How did this disaster happen? After the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, a series of sanctions directly cut off oil exports, tightening the economic lifeline. By June 2025, conflicts with neighboring countries pushed the rial to the brink—depreciating 40% in half a year. Deeper issues are even more stubborn: an economy overly dependent on oil, a weak banking system, and inflation that is hard to control. Changes in the central bank leadership have also failed to reverse public disappointment in the financial system.

At this critical moment, Bitcoin quietly filled the gap. Traditional safe-haven options are blocked (the government tightly controls dollar and gold exchanges), and decentralized crypto assets have become an alternative. Data shows: in 2025, Iran’s cryptocurrency outflows surged 70%, reaching a scale of $4.2 billion, with stablecoins and Bitcoin transactions especially active.

Why do people choose it? Two main reasons support this: first, its property as a hard asset—when fiat currency confidence collapses and traditional safe-haven channels are shut, the value storage function of digital currencies becomes prominent. Second, the cost advantage of mining—this will be elaborated later, but it is enough to explain why Bitcoin’s demand in this country continues to rise. From a marginal option to a survival tool, Bitcoin’s story in Iran reflects the innate human instinct to protect assets amid the global economic crisis.