The government cut off Internet access in Iran on Thursday as protests spread across the Middle Eastern country, raising the question: Can its citizens still use crypto?
About seven million people, out of the country’s 92 million inhabitants, are estimated be crypto users, according to Statista. TRM Labs tracked roughly $3.7 billion in total crypto flows in Iran between January and July 2025.
But internet access was cut off in the country as protests began over deteriorating economic conditions and after the Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar.
Some outside observers, such as Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley, have suggested that buying Bitcoin (BTC) could be the solution as a store of wealth.
Crypto opportunities without internet
Without internet access, it will be much more difficult for Iranians to transact using cryptocurrency. However, several technologies available today could make a difference.
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet equipment, for example, can provide high-speed Internet in areas that previously lacked service.
There have been calls for Musk to set up Starlink to restore the internet in a country like his did during the previous blackout in June 2025. Unconfirmed reports claim that Musk has quietly approved the request.
Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream could offer another option for crypto users. Its satellite network can broadcast Bitcoin data anywhere in the world without using the Internet.
Starlink provides two-way high-speed Internet by connecting user antennas to satellites that transmit data globally via laser and ground stations.
Some smart users have too found that Jack Dorsey’s decentralized peer-to-peer messaging service, Bitchat, which uses a Bluetooth mesh network to send messages, may also allow Bitcoin transaction data to be sent between phones.
However, in the end, a device with internet is required before it can be confirmed on the chain.
Chromestats show Bitchat has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times since launch, with more than 19,828 in the last day and more than 460,724 in the past week.
Other tools in development for offline crypto use
Meanwhile, several tools are in the works that will enable the use of cryptocurrencies offline.
Darkwire, a tool that uses long-range radio to create a decentralized mesh network to send data, such as Bitcoin transactions, without the Internet, was exposed from its pseudonymous creator Cyb3r17 in May 2025.
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Similar to Blockstreams satellites and Bitchat, in the end, a device in the network requires the internet to verify the transaction and add it to the blockchain. Darkwire is listed on GitHub as under major rewrite.
In 2022, a South African software developer, Kgothatso Ngako, allegedly created a different solution known as Machankura. The tool allows users to send and receive Bitcoins over the phone without an internet connection using a mobile telecommunications network, according to to a March 2023 Forbes report i projects website.
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