Overview
- Mindex, Iran’s official arms exporter, lists cryptocurrency alongside barter and local currencies for contracts on items such as ballistic missiles, drones, tanks and warships.
- The public catalog shows no prices and emphasizes negotiable terms via a multilingual site with a virtual chatbot guiding prospective buyers.
- The agency claims relationships with roughly 30 to 35 client countries, while counterpart identities and any completed crypto-for-arms deals have not been disclosed.
- Documents reviewed by the Financial Times indicate the policy has been in place for about a year as Iran looks for nontraditional settlement methods following renewed sanctions in 2025.
- U.S. authorities warn foreign buyers could face secondary sanctions, and Chainalysis reported nearly $16 billion in digital assets flowed to sanctioned countries in 2024.