Share this article
Iran Concerns May Be Driving Trump Administration's Talk of New Crypto Rules
Tensions with Iran may be behind U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s cryptocurrency compliance comments on Wednesday.
By Leigh Cuen
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 12:17 p.m. Published Feb 13, 2020, 10:15 p.m.
Tensions with Iran may be behind U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s cryptocurrency compliance comments on Wednesday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The New York Times reported the Trump administration “has expressed growing concern” that this technology is being used to “evade American sanctions on countries like Iran.”
Earlier this week, the Parliament of Iran Research Center published a report suggesting cryptocurrency mining licenses issued in January could generate new tax revenue and bureaucratic fees. A related proposal by the same government-run center suggested this could bring the government upwards of $1 billion in annual revenue from the domestic cryptocurrency mining industry, which is estimated to be valued at $8.5 billion.
The report also recommends allocating a portion of the Iranian government’s 2021 budget to cryptocurrency mining, though the specifics of that proposal are unclear.
In short, if the Trump administration is trying to starve the Iranian regime into submission, bitcoin may give the Islamic Republic a lifeline.
Mnuchin’s comments come days after the Trump administration proposed increasing the Treasury Department’s 2021 budget for cryptocurrency oversight. In 2019 alone, various U.S. government agencies spent $5 million on blockchain analytics services from Chainalysis.
In July, Mnuchin referred to Facebook’s proposed Libra stablecoin as a “national security issue,” citing concerns about terror financing and money laundering.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
CFTC Launches Digital Assets Pilot Allowing Bitcoin, Ether and USDC as Collateral
Acting Chair Caroline Pham has unveiled a first-of-its-kind U.S. program to permit tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, citing "clear guardrails" for firms.
What to know:
- The CFTC has launched a pilot program allowing BTC, ETH and USDC to be used as collateral in U.S. derivatives markets.
- The program is aimed at approved futures commission merchants and includes strict custody, reporting and oversight requirements.
- The agency also issued updated guidance for tokenized assets and withdrew outdated restrictions following the GENIUS Act.
Top Stories
