A popular trading pair on Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, is experiencing problems with inadequate liquidity and market fluctuations after it was suspended amid ongoing US-led airstrikes in the country.
Nobitex’s Telegram account posted on February 28 that it was suspending the Tether/Toman market until the following morning due to the “current emergency situation and per the directive of the Central Bank.”
When it was reopened, Nobitex claimed there had been “a temporary disruption in the supply and demand balance.”
“This situation led to momentary fluctuations and prices outside the market’s normal trend,” it said, adding that user positions priced at less than 145,000 Tether/Toman were liquidated as a result.
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“Nobitex has decided to review all positions that were liquidated at prices below 145,000 Tether and reverse the process.”
It also warned that any transactions voluntarily placed below the 145,000 Tether/Toman price mark “will not be subject to this reversal process.”
“Additionally, until the review and reversal process is complete, affected users are requested to refrain from any transfers or withdrawals of the relevant assets to ensure the process proceeds without disruption,” Nobitex said.
Users in Iran are withdrawing crypto from Nobitex
Nobitex said on Saturday that internet outages in the country were slowing down its ability to process crypto withdrawals. The exchange also disabled the ability to create new futures positions with a leverage greater than one due to increased price volatility.
These announcements were made as the exchange experienced a 700% surge in outflows minutes after the first US-Israel airstrikes in Iran.
Crypto analytics firm Elliptic noted that the surge equated to an hourly withdrawal rate of almost $3 million at its peak, and “potentially represents capital flight from Iran.”
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It added that “Initial tracing of recent outflows from Nobitex suggests that the funds are being sent to overseas cryptoasset exchanges that have historically seen significant inflows from Iran.”
Coinbase Director Conor Grogan noted that Nobitex hasn’t processed any outbound transactions on its Ethereum addresses across the weekend, adding that TON transactions going through might be “botted activity.”
Nobitex’s site is also currently displaying an error 504, and crypto analyst Chainalysis noted that other Iranian exchanges like Ramzinex are also offline.
US and Israel kill Iran’s supreme leader
The conflict began on Saturday after the US had been increasing its military presence in the region for weeks in order to push Iran to accept a new nuclear deal.
US President Donald Trump has accused Iran of building nuclear weapons and has encouraged the country’s citizens to prepare to overthrow their current government.
There’s been civil unrest in the country since January when a government crackdown reportedly killed tens of thousands of protesters.
Elliptic’s findings show that the exchange experienced another outflow surge around this time, as well as outflows that coincided with new sanctions this year.
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Airstrikes launched by Israel and the US against military targets killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his Tehran compound, alongside other top government officials. Most of Khamenei’s family have also reportedly been killed.
In the wake of the strikes, Middle East analysts have suggested that Iran’s political system won’t collapse quite yet as it distributes power across multiple institutions, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and isn’t centralized with Khamenei.
Iran has launched drone and missile strikes across the Middle East in response to the military operations and has targeted Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and other countries in the region.
