Did Scott Bessent FORCE This Middle Eastern Giant To SELL Their Secret Bitcoin Reserves? | EP 1518

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Scott Bessent made an announcement last night that might help explain Bitcoin's flash crash to 66K overnight.
Everyone's being distracted and blaming Michael Saylor for the crash, but I think the US. Treasury's newest escalation in the Middle East could be the bigger factor that influences where Bitcoin goes next. So here's what Scott Bessent tweeted last night. Let me pull that up. Of course, we got our boy, Kent Halliburton, CEO and co-founder of Saz Mining with us today. And of course, Nico's over here too. We got a full house today, guys. All right. So let me zoom in here. And I will start with just reading a little bit of this. And then I'm going to go into the official press release. So Scott Bessent tweeted, While Iran's economy is in freefall, the regime has chosen to co-op digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country.
So before I go further, I think one of the biggest revelations that we have found out since this second operation in the Middle East is the role that Bitcoin has played, not only in Iran, you know, as the example, but in general as a geopolitically neutral money. I think that is probably the biggest takeaway that we, or rather that I have found from this whole thing that we've seen is that it has entered Bitcoin into the mainstream conversation here, for better or worse, okay? Obviously, Trump came out and said, hey, we are pro-Bitcoin, we're going to be the Bitcoin capital of the world.
And then we go into the Middle East, we go into Iran, we start this operation war, however you want to frame it, however they're framing it now. And we find out essentially the big news, which we've actually have heard rumors for a while that Iran has been one of the biggest, not only sovereign holders of Bitcoin, but biggest Bitcoin miners. And of course, the most recent press release we saw is that Iran has basically used, I believe the number was $90 billion dark network is how they were framing it. So Bitcoin has made a very serious foothold into the geopolitical macro conversation. So let's get into this press release here. And this is where it does get a little interesting. So Scott Bessent is quote tweeting this tweet from the Treasury Department saying, today Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control designated, I think it's no B-Techs.
I think that's how you say it. Maybe it's no B-Techs, but I think it's no B-Techs. Iran's largest digital assets exchange, along with three other Iranian digital asset exchanges as part of Economic Fury and the Trump Administration's effort to eliminate the threat posed by the Iranian regime. So going over to the press release, here's the press release. And Economic Fury targets Iran's largest digital assets exchange for terror finance and sanctions evasion, which we've been covering on this show for a long time. That's one of the biggest conversations we have here, is that Bitcoin, by its very nature, will force governments to essentially readjust their view on, or rather, how they view sanctions working in the modern digital world. But anyways, going further today, the US. Department of OFAC designated, again, I think it's Nobitex, Nobitex, Iran's largest digital asset exchange, along with three other Iranian digital asset exchange. It's part of Economic Fury and the Trump administration's effort to eliminate the threat posed by the Iranian regime. Now, they're quote-tweeting the Scott Bessent tweet, so I won't read the first part, but I'll read the rest of the quote, and it goes, Iran's current economic chaos has proved that President Trump's maximum pressure campaign has been a success. As promised, Treasury will continue to follow the money in support of economic fury, whether it is through the banking system or through digital assets to prevent the regime from developing a nuclear weapon. Nobitex has provided significant support to the regime, processing more than 50% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025 and facilitating payments tied to Iran's terrorist activities, sanctions evasion efforts and the IRGC-linked transactions, including activity associated with the IRGC's affiliated ransomware actors. Nobitex also helped the Central Bank of Iran access hundreds of millions of dollars in stable coins used to prop up the plummeting value of the Iranian real, while enabling regime insiders to access international digital asset exchange and evade sanctions across multiple jurisdictions. Now, I want you to keep in mind that last part of that sentence, which is enabling regime insiders to access international digital asset exchange and evade sanctions across multiple jurisdictions. That is where my head is going to go later on in the show, but reading more of this press release, following the commencement of US combat operations in Iran, okay, so it's US combat operations now. It's no other war, it's a combat operation. Nobitex played a role in protecting and moving assets and funds out of Iran to shield regime wealth despite internet blackouts. NoFact, of course, today also designated Amir Hossein Rad, Nobitex's chairman, co-founder and former CEO, as well as numerous other Nobitex leaders and officials. Anyways, going further, just reading a little bit, of course, they go on to explain how, what this economic fury is doing, what the point of it is. And it's something we've been covering on the show for a little while here, which is part of what we are seeing happen in the Middle East is not just a kinetic confrontation between the US., Israel and Iran, but what we are also seeing is this economic fury or economic epic fury play out, which is again a war on the finances here. So it is a two front war coming from the US., which is one, we are obviously in a kinetic confrontation again, you know, literally missiles and seemingly maybe potentially boots on the ground, but also attacking where the money is coming from. Hence why we always say on the show, and it's one of the common tropes of Bitcoiners is if you follow the money, then you can see how things are actually playing out. Now, the US. Treasury, I think, is taking a little bit further. It's not just following the money, but attack the money. Make sure you can stop their money flowing to them so that they can stop funding all of the stuff that they're doing. Or put another way, if you cut off their money, then the bad guys can't do the bad guy things. Anyways, there is a little more in here, which is pretty interesting here. So again, it goes into what Nobitex has done, which I basically just said. But you can see in this press release that this whole idea is basically based on the premise that the Iranian regime has been using Bitcoin or as they like to frame it, digital assets to not only store value, not only build a dark network as they've been framing it, but obviously be able to get money out of the country or rather put another way for them to get fiat and be able to transact with various different countries. And this is where I start getting maybe again, a little tinfoil hat, but I think what again I've been saying here that I find to be the most interesting is one, that Bitcoin has obviously become a central role in how the IRGC is not only funding their military operation in Iran, but also that this is how they are transacting, this is how they're storing their wealth. Now, the interesting part again is that idea that I brought up at the very beginning of the show.