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U.S.-Sanctioned Countries Such as Iran Leaning Heavily Into Crypto: Chainalysis

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7 месяцев ago

19 февраля, 2025

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Countries targeted by U.S. government sanctions have surged in illicit crypto activity, receiving nearly $16 billion in digital assets last year — about 39% of illicit token transactions — according to a report from Chainalysis released on Wednesday.

2024 was a year in which those nations — especially Iran — surged over individuals in sanctions-related activity, noted the report from the crypto-analytics firm.

«As Western restrictions tighten, sanctioned nations are turning to cryptocurrencies and alternative financial systems to sustain trade and access capital,» according to the report, which cited Russian and Iranian financial transactions with trade partners such as China and India, using payment mechanisms that don’t rely on U.S. dollars.

«While cryptocurrency use in sanctioned jurisdictions may be associated with illicit state-controlled finance, it also represents an important financial lifeline for ordinary citizens facing economic hardship under restrictive regimes,» the report said.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, is the government arm that sets sanctions, and last year it issued 13 that included crypto addresses. That was down from the previous year, but still high. Now that President Donald Trump has taken over the executive branch and installed Scott Bessent atop the Treasury, the pro-crypto administration may take a different approach to digital assets.

Crypto-mixing platform Tornado Cash had been famously targeted by U.S. authorities in 2023, but the popular service was still able to handle hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto transactions a month in 2024, the report said, though it hasn’t returned to its pre-sanction level.

Such services are criticized for their use in the laundering of stolen funds or in evading sanctions, and they’re difficult to shutter because they operate via smart contracts on a decentralized blockchain. Users pushing stolen funds accounted for an increase in Tornado Cash’s usage in 2024, amounting to more than 24% of its total inflows, according to Chainalysis.

Tornado Cash has come to represent the industry’s legal fight with the U.S. government over user anonymity and whether developers should be liable for what they create, and a U.S. federal appeals court rejected the original sanctions in November.

Chainalysis devoted close attention to Iran in its latest report.

«Iran’s government maintains extensive control over the country’s financial system, including cryptocurrency infrastructure,» the document noted. «For many Iranians, cryptocurrency represents an alternative financial system, and the increasing use of Iranian crypto exchanges suggests that more individuals and institutions are resorting to crypto to safeguard wealth and circumvent financial restrictions.»

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Bitcoin Mining Profitability Fell in August, Jefferies Says

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2 часа ago

15 сентября, 2025

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Bitcoin (BTC) mining profitability declined 5% last month primarily becuase of an increase in the network hashrate, investment bank Jefferies said in a research report Sunday.

«A hypothetical one EH/s fleet of BTC miners would have generated ~$55k/day in revenue during August, vs ~$58k/day in July and ~$44k a year ago,» wrote analysts led by Jonathan Petersen.

The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty. It is measured in exahashes per second (EH/s).

U.S.-listed mining companies mined 3,573 bitcoin in August versus 3,598 in July, the report noted, and these miners accounted for 26% of the Bitcoin network last month, unchanged from July.

MARA Holdings (MARA) mined the most bitcoin of the group, with 705,703 tokens, followed by IREN (IREN), Jefferies said.

MARA’s energized hashrate is still the largest of the group, at 59.4 EH/s, with CleanSpark (CLSK) second with 50 EH/s, the report added.

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France, Austria and Italy Urge Stronger EU Oversight of Crypto Markets Under MiCA

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2 часа ago

15 сентября, 2025

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Market watchdogs in France, Austria and Italy want the European Union to tighten its approach to crypto regulation, warning that uneven enforcement of the bloc’s landmark MiCA legislation could leave investors exposed to risks that aren’t covered by the rules.

In a joint statement, France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), Austria’s Finanzmarktaufsichtsbehörde (FMA) and Italy’s Consob said the first months of MiCA’s rollout revealed “major differences” in how national supervisors apply the law. Without changes, they argued, firms may shop around for lenient jurisdictions, undermining both investor protection and Europe’s competitiveness in digital assets.

The regulators set out four proposals. Chief among them is handing direct supervision of the largest crypto-asset service providers to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). They also want to close loopholes allowing EU intermediaries to route orders to offshore platforms not bound by MiCA, a practice that leaves investors without regulatory safeguards.

The authorities also called for mandatory, independent cybersecurity audits before firms receive or renew MiCA licenses, citing the sector’s high exposure to hacks. Finally, they proposed a centralized filing system for token white papers to simplify cross-border offerings and ensure legal clarity.

While MiCA was designed to harmonize crypto oversight across the EU, the three regulators say swift adjustments are needed to align with international standards set by the Financial Stability Board and IOSCO. Without them, they caution, national regulators may be forced into emergency measures that risk fracturing Europe’s digital asset market.

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PayPal Adding Crypto to Peer-to-Peer Payments, Allowing Direct Transfer of BTC, ETH, Others

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2 часа ago

15 сентября, 2025

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Payments firm PayPal (PYPL) said it is expanding its peer-to-peer service by adding cryptocurrency transfers to its payment flow, the company announced on Monday.

Users in the U.S. will soon be able to send bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), PayPal’s dollar stablecoin PYUSD and other digital assets across PayPal, Venmo and an increasing number of crypto-compatible wallets worldwide, the firm said in a Monday press release.

The integration arrives alongside «PayPal links,» a new tool that lets users generate a one-time personalized link to send or request money. The links can be dropped into text messages, chats or email, embedding payments into everyday conversations.

Personal transfers between friends and family will remain exempt from IRS 1099-K tax reporting requirements, meaning gifts, reimbursements and shared expenses won’t generate tax forms even if crypto is involved in the transaction, the firm said.

The company said the move builds on «PayPal World,» its new interoperability initiative aimed at connecting the largest digital wallets and payment systems. Peer-to-peer payments are a key growth driver, with consumer payment volume climbing 10% in the second quarter year-over-year. In July, the firm said to expand crypto payments for U.S. merchants as part of its deeper push into global digital currency payments.