Crypto Use Among Sanctioned States Jumped Eightfold in 2025, WSJ Says

Iran, North Korea, Russia and other sanctioned countries reportedly moved more than $100 billion in crypto in 2025, according to industry estimates cited by The Wall Street Journal. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the point is not just volume: sanctioned actors are getting better at using tokens, exchanges, and cross-border payment rails that are harder to unwind once they are in motion.

1. Chainalysis estimates that crypto addresses linked to sanctioned countries received more than $100 billion last year, nearly eight times the amount received in 2024. That is the number to keep in mind if you underwrite flows touching higher-risk corridors: the scale is no longer marginal, and the growth rate is doing the heavy lifting.
2. The WSJ report says these countries have become more sophisticated in navigating the market, including by establishing their own digital tokens and crypto exchanges to process transactions. In practice, that means the risk is not only direct wallet exposure, but also infrastructure built to make sanctions evasion look like ordinary crypto activity.
3. Western officials and crypto analytics firms said Iran and Russia have used digital assets to pay for drones and weapon parts, while Russia has also used crypto to pay crews smuggling oil around the world. North Korea, meanwhile, has used virtual currency to purchase fuel and military equipment, according to officials cited by the paper.
4. Kaitlin Martin, a senior intelligence analyst at Chainalysis, said, “Crypto has changed the sanctions evasion game significantly.” Eric Jardine, Chainalysis head of research, pointed to the rise of the ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5, later sanctioned by the European Union, as an example; once it reached scale, he said, “about $2 billion a week” was being processed via that token.
5. The policy backdrop is still moving. The U.S. has waived sanctions on Iranian oil as it works on a peace deal with Tehran, but could reinstate them if no agreement is reached to end the conflict. For payment providers, that means compliance exposure can change faster than product teams like to admit, especially when sanctions policy and crypto rails are shifting at the same time.

Russia says sanctions against it are illegal under international law and that it has “deployed and developed alternative mechanisms that allow the economy to function normally,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the news outlet. North Korea called allegations that it engages in cybercrimes “absurd slander” and part of Washington’s “hostile policy” toward its government.