If there is a silver lining to the US's efforts to surveil and control every financial transaction on earth, it's that it gives us an opportunity to see if Bitcoin can route around it and really be censorship resistant.

This article attempts to make the case that Bitcoin usage in Iran is increasing directly because of sanctions efforts by the US and other western nations. Here are a few points:

• Around 14 million Iranians, roughly one in six, use Bitcoin, with annual transaction volumes growing 11.8% year-on-year and now representing ~2.2% of Iranian GDP
• Iran has arbitraged its heavily subsidised domestic energy into Bitcoin mining since 2019, giving the state a sanctions-resistant export conduit that is extremely difficult to disrupt from the outside
• Iranian hashrate is real but routinely overstated — Luxor estimates current share at ~0.8% (9 EH/s), and neither the June 2025 Twelve-Day War nor the February 2026 Operation Epic Fury strikes caused material hashrate disruption to the global network
• IRGC-linked addresses received over $3 billion in Q4 2025 alone, and transaction volumes from Iranian exchanges spiked 700% within minutes of the first February 2026 strikes—Bitcoin's primary role in the Iranian state context is sanctions evasion, not mining for state accumulation
• Bitcoin usage spikes predictably around every Iranian crisis event, with on-chain data showing sharp increases in self-custody withdrawals during protests, conflicts, and internet blackouts
• Gold traded at a discount in Dubai during the February 2026 crisis because it is hard to move meanwhile Bitcoin has traded at a premium in Tehran

If this trend continues and we see it bear out in other contexts, it will be a strong case in favor of Bitcoin. If it can be money for people (evil thugs or otherwise) who some of the most powerful nations on earth would like to defeat, it probably is worth the time and effort all of us are putting in to it.