Iran's banking system and cryptocurrency exchanges are completely paralyzed! If the Taiwan Strait encounters an information war, can holding Bitcoin serve as a hedge?

The Israel-Iran war has reached a stalemate, and Iranian television has even predicted a surprise tonight that will be remembered by the world for centuries. Recently, Iran's Bank Sepah (遭遇網路攻擊, online services were interrupted, and data was destroyed. Iran's centralized crypto exchange Nobitex was also hacked for over 81.5 million dollars. The hacker organization Gonjeshke Darande, associated with Israel, has admitted to launching these two attacks. It also raises questions about how much holding crypto assets can serve as a hedge for Taiwan, which is similarly facing a crisis of information warfare.

Israeli hacker Gonjeshke Darande paralyzed the Iranian banking system

According to the Israel Times, Iran's first bank, Bank Sepah ), experienced a cyber attack on Tuesday, leading to the disruption of its online services and data destruction. The semi-official Fars news agency reported that some gas stations in Iran that rely on the Sepah system for transaction processing encountered issues. Although a spokesperson for the Central Bank of Iran told the state-run IRNA ( that all banking operations were running smoothly, opposition media Iran International reported that several branches of Bank Sepah were closed on Tuesday, preventing customers from logging into their accounts.

The Israeli hacker group Gonjeshke Darande ) means: Predatory Sparrow ( has claimed responsibility for this cyber attack. The group stated on Twitter: "Sepah Bank is an institution that evades international sanctions, using the money of the Iranian people to fund terrorist proxies, ballistic missile programs, and military nuclear programs." The statement also said: "Thanks to the brave Iranians who helped realize this operation."

Reports indicate that due to long-term Western sanctions, Iran has difficulty obtaining the latest hardware and software, relying on electronic products made in China or outdated systems for which the original manufacturers no longer provide patches, making Iran the top target for hackers.

The Iranian exchange was hacked for over 81.5 million dollars.

On the afternoon of the 18th Taiwan time, the Iranian centralized crypto exchange Nobitex admitted to being hacked. The statement indicated that the exchange's technical team detected unauthorized transactions in some hot wallets; however, it only affected a portion of the hot wallet assets. Nobitex takes full responsibility for this incident and assures users that all losses will be compensated. The website and application will be temporarily unavailable until a comprehensive review is completed.

On-chain detective ZachXBT also stated on his personal channel that the amount stolen from Nobitex reached 81.7 million USD. The hacker addresses include Tron’s TKFuckiRGCTerroristsNoBiTEXy2r7mNX and EVM’s 0xffFFfFFffFFffFfFffFFfFfFfFFFFfFfFFFFDead.

Gonjeshke Darande also came forward to admit to initiating the attack, stating that the Nobitex exchange is at the core of the Iranian regime's funding of global terrorism activities, using centralized exchanges to evade international sanctions. Nobitex does not even pretend, as it clearly acknowledges the fact of evading international sanctions on its website. Due to the Iranian regime's heavy reliance on it, working at Nobitex is even considered an alternative to serving in the military in Iran. The organization threatened to release Nobitex's source code and internal information within 24 hours.

Information warfare has become the modern battlefield. Can holding crypto assets serve as a hedge?

The form of modern warfare has changed significantly; it is no longer just a war of weapons on land, sea, and air, but information warfare on the internet has also become mainstream. A special study by the Ministry of National Defense pointed out that the US military used information warfare to strike and paralyze the command and control system of the Iraqi army during the Gulf War. The Iraqi forces were in a state of chaos and disorder, even paralyzed, from the first day of the war.

In Taiwan, which faces the same war pressures, many people hold crypto assets as a hedge. The Seppa Bank incident demonstrated that centralized systems are likely to collapse completely when faced with information warfare. The decentralized nature of blockchain is theoretically more robust, requiring control of a large number of nodes to alter data.

However, it is important to note that many new-generation public chains are not as decentralized, with many nodes controlled by the same group of people. In extreme cases, there may be risks of malicious activities. Therefore, older public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum may be safer options. For Taiwanese people, many public chains are developed by Chinese teams, and how they control the blockchain during a Taiwan Strait war is also one of the risks.

On the other hand, the case of Nobitex being attacked by Israeli hackers also shows that if you want to hold crypto assets for hedging, you need to transfer your assets to the blockchain. Cases of theft from centralized crypto exchanges are not uncommon.

This article discusses the complete paralysis of the Iranian banking system and centralized crypto exchanges! If a information war occurs in the Taiwan Strait, can holding Bitcoin serve as a hedge? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.