Chainalysis, a blockchain-based analytics company, has released its 2025 Crypto Crime Report. It states that sanctioned parties received 15 billion dollars in cryptos in 2024. That’s 39% all illegal crypto transactions.
Reports highlighted the increasing tensions between nations and their financial constraints, which led countries like Iran and Russia into using digital assets as a way to avoid sanctions.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ramped up efforts to dismantle financial networks supporting sanctioned states, moving beyond targeting individuals to disrupting core financial infrastructures.
OFAC has issued 13 crypto address designations, which is the second highest total over the last seven years despite the decrease in sanctions.
Iran’s reliance on crypto
Iran’s growing reliance on crypto was evident, with centralized exchanges (CEXs) in the country showing increased activity and capital outflows.
In 2024, outflows soared by 70% to $4.18billion, with residents turning to digital assets in the face of a steep decline in the Iranian Rial and an inflation rate hovering between 40-50%.
The Iranian government’s abrupt halt of withdrawals from exchanges indicates its attempts to curb financial outflows. Iranians have used crypto to protect themselves from economic instabilities and preserve their wealth. They often use digital assets to circumvent government financial controls.
The Trump Administration issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum NSPM-2 in February. This memo reinstates the “maximum pressure”Campaign against Iran
This directive detailed aggressive measures that the US Department of Justice would take to disrupt sanction evasion and target Iranian financial networks. This included investigating Iranian finance networks, impounding fraudulent oil cargoes, seized Iranian assets and bringing charges against leaders of Iranian funded terrorist groups.
Russia’s growing ecosystem
The Russian government has passed legislation to legalize crypto mining, and allow digital assets as payment methods for international transactions. This is done in order to reduce the financial strain caused by Western sanctions.
The policy shift aimed to ease financial pressure by enabling global trade through cryptocurrencies, and Russia strengthened ties with BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — to explore alternative financial systems that bypass the US dollar.
Russia’s Central Bank has been driving efforts to integrate crypto into the country’s financial system under regulatory oversight, highlighting a significant departure from the country’s previous stance against digital assets.
Western agencies will launch significant operations in 2024 against Russian crypto entities. OFAC sanctioned KB Vostok OOO on August 23. The company was accused of soliciting donations in crypto and facilitating the sale of drones to Russian forces operating in Ukraine.
On September 19, the German Federal Criminal Police confiscated infrastructure from 47 crypto exchanges that did not require a KYC and were involved in darknet transactions, ransomware, and other types of cybercrime. “Operation Final Exchange.”
The US Department of Treasury sanctioned Cryptex (a Russian-based crypto-exchange) and its operator Sergey Sergeevich Ivanov on September 26. They were accused of laundering millions through fraudulent shops and darknet marketplaces during the period. “Operation Endgame.”
The crackdown continued on Dec. 4, when the UK’s National Crime Agency dismantled a Russian money laundering network in “Operation Destabilise,” leading to 84 arrests and the seizure of over €20 million in cash and crypto.
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