According to Chainalysis, addresses tied to sanctioned actors received about $154 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, a 694% increase year on year. The report notes that several states under sanctions, including Russia, Iran and North Korea, made active use of digital assets to move value across borders.

Key findings of the report

Chainalysis highlights that a small number of entities accounted for a large share of the flows linked to sanctions evasion, with individual instruments and groups concentrating most transfer activity. The analysis separates on-chain receipts by known sanctioned addresses and clusters identified through transaction tracing.

Country and entity breakdown

• Russia: a ruble-pegged stablecoin, A7A5, processed roughly $93 billion in transactions in under a year.
• Iran: addresses linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps received more than $3 billion.
• North Korea: state‑linked hackers appropriated over $2 billion in digital assets during 2025.

Market context and share of illicit activity

Despite the surge in receipts to sanctioned actors, Chainalysis reports that the overall share of illicit activity on cryptocurrency markets remains low, accounting for less than 1% of total on‑chain transaction value. The firm separates sanctioned receipts from broader classifications of illicit finance to clarify scale.

Methodology note

The report uses on‑chain analytics and clustering heuristics to attribute addresses to sanctioned actors and aggregates receipts over the calendar year 2025. Chainalysis indicates that estimates reflect detected on‑chain flows and may not capture off‑chain arrangements or untraceable conversions.