Iran's Central Bank Cracks Down on Crypto Exchanges Over Market Manipulation Concerns

The Central Bank of Iran plans to block rial accounts and payment gateways belonging to some crypto exchanges, citing concerns over market manipulation. This move targets two key areas: the rial bank accounts exchanges use to hold customer deposits, and the payment gateways that move money in and out. Without these, users cannot easily fund accounts with local currency.

This builds on earlier restrictions, which introduced temporary limits on USDT trading against the toman in late September 2026. The affected platforms include Nobitex and Wallex, two of the country's largest domestic exchanges. The September restrictions capped purchases at 2,000 USDT per user per day on participating exchanges and suspended trading every night from 21:00 to 09:00 Tehran time.

The central bank's actions come as Tether has acted against wallets tied to the central bank, freezing approximately $344 million in April 2026 and $131 million in July 2026 linked to CBI-associated wallets. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic previously identified over $507 million connected to Iranian USDT acquisitions, suggesting the central bank itself had been an active buyer of the stablecoin.