Key Takeaways:
- Iran is offering ballistic missiles, drones, and warships for cryptocurrency payments to bypass Western sanctions
- The state-run defense exporter Mindex accepts crypto, barter, and local currencies for military contracts
- The move highlights how digital assets are becoming a tool for sanctioned states to sustain sensitive trade
Iran has taken a rare and explicit step into crypto-based state trade, signaling its willingness to sell advanced weapons systems in exchange for digital assets. The offer places cryptocurrency at the center of one of the most sensitive markets in global commerce: arms exports under heavy international sanctions.
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Iran Turns to Crypto for Sanction-Resistant Arms Sales
Iran’s Ministry of Defence Export Center, known as Mindex, is openly negotiating military export contracts that allow payment in cryptocurrency. According to materials reviewed by international media, digital assets are presented alongside barter arrangements and Iranian rials as acceptable settlement options.
This marks one of the first confirmed cases where a nation state has publicly acknowledged crypto as a payment rail for exporting strategic military hardware, including weapons that are tightly restricted under international law.
The initiative has emerged over the past year as Tehran faces escalating pressure from US, EU, and UK sanctions targeting its financial system, defense sector, and access to global banking infrastructure.
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What Mindex Is Offering to Sell
Mindex operates as Iran’s official overseas defense sales body and claims to maintain client relationships with 30 to 35 countries. Its public-facing catalog advertises a wide range of military products, from conventional arms to advanced systems.
Several of these systems have been linked by Western governments and UN reporting to Iran-backed groups operating across the Middle East.
The export platform is multilingual and structured like a commercial marketplace, with an online portal and virtual chatbot guiding prospective buyers through contract terms and compliance questions.
How Crypto Fits into the Payment Structure
Listed market prices are not available on the platform. It focuses instead on flexibility of settlement methods. Buyers will be able to pay with:
- Cryptocurrencies
- Barter arrangements involving goods or services
- Local currencies in the destination country
- Limited in-country payment structures
Crypto is not offered as an alternative, but its presence serves as the definite substitute to dollar-based or Western-linked financial rails which can be easily monitored and enforced.
Sanctions Pressure Drives Crypto Adoption
The shift is indicative of a larger trend with the highly sanctioned states resorting to digital assets to keep trade flowing. Using conventional banking, the counterparties are exposed to secondary sanctions, asset freezes, and being barred by the Western financial systems.
Previous accusations by the US authorities against Iran are that Iran utilized crypto-linked networks to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars associated with oil sales and military operations. Over the past few years, Washington has imposed sanctions on individuals and organizations that are suspected to have done their banking through shadow systems and used cryptocurrencies to effect financial transactions without being regulated.
The same action has been taken against Russian networks that have been accused of exploiting digital resources in order to evade sanctions as a result of the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow.