Bitcoin shoots up again while Iranian government siphons millions via crypto accounts

Bitcoin jumped above $70k again on Wednesday as investors are looking for so called safe haven investments in these uncertain times. Precious metals also rallied.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $73,000 again.

There's the upward move for #Bitcoin.

Looks great for more continuation; however, $74K is the first resistance.

I think that, at least in the short-term, dips are a buying opportunity in $BTC.

In the meantime, during consolidative periods, it's likely to expect some momentum… pic.twitter.com/9WBJ2n2Jen

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) March 4, 2026

Just as is the case in Russia, the importance of crypto has become overwhelming in Iran in  recent years. This was evident this past weekend when millions of dollars in crypto were moved out of the country as from the moment the first American and Israeli bombs were dropped.

Garantex

Iran has a sinister past with crypto. Back in 2023, it paid tens of millions of dollars to Hamas via the Russian crypto platform Garantex to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack on Israel. That crypto platform has since been shut down, but crypto’s popularity has remained very high in the country ever since then (thanks in part to skyrocketing inflation and the decline of the local fiat currency).

While estimates vary widely, crypto researchers claim that crypto transaction volumes in Iran had already reached anywhere between $8 and 11 billion by 2025, and that it was well on its way to breaking that record in 2026.

Around the time the first bombs fell last Saturday night, some $10 million was quickly transferred to foreign crypto accounts, according to research firm Chainanalysis. British blockchain research firm Elliptic simultaneously reported that cryptocurrency outflows from Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, peaked at $2.89 million on Saturday night. This is eight times higher than the previous day’s peak.

A total of $10.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies left Iranian crypto exchanges between Saturday and Monday, according to Chainalysis.