Utiper Luke Damant Land in Iran, just saved his encryption

When the Australian travel blog Luke Damant fell in Tehran, the first shock was culture or food, it was money.

“When I got to the airport, there were many fraudsters who were trying to deceive them because they were using the Google exchange rate, which is much lower compared to the black market price”, “DAMANT Remember In Podcast with Harry Gagard. “US dollars equal to about one million Iranian riyals, so it is a very inflated currency, and if you get a hundred dollars, you have a lot of money.”

Iranian Real collapsed in decades of US sanctions, which prevented the country from global banking systems such as Swift. The visa and MasterCard have been banned.

“You cannot use any banks or ATMs there because of the sanctions. MasterCard and Visa are banned from working in the country, so you have to bring US dollars or euros, and full of money, and you have to go to the street and get an exchange, which is a crazy experience,” Damant said.

Local population moves to the system with “Toons”, an abbreviation that removes zeros from RIAL, which makes the already confusing cash exchanges more difficult for foreigners. Foreign visitors such as Damant should carry chimneys of foreign currency, but the local population has another solution.

“Is it true that you can use the encryption there?” He asked one of the interviews. “I think so. I think they are taking Bitcoin In some places, Damant answered.

For the Iranians, the encryption is not only related to speculation – but rather to bypass a broken system. “If you are only visiting for a week or two as a foreigner, you must bring all the money and exchange it on the street,” said Damant. For everyone, Bitcoin fills the increasingly created gap penalties.

US sanctions, especially through OFAC, prevent most Iranians from accessing global payment networks. series I mentioned 4.2 billion dollars of external encryption flows from Iran in 2024, an increase of 70 % over 2023, most of which are driven by people trying to circumvent frozen banking options.

With the presence of RIAL in Freefuls, after it lost about 90 % of its value since it withdrew from the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018, the digital assets became the lifestyle of citizens trying to maintain savings and transfer money outside the country.

This story was originally reported Thestreet On September 14, 2025, where it first appeared in Markets to divide. Add thestreet as The favorite source of clicking here.