Tehran's free-market dollar pulled back on the evening of Tuesday, August 25, 2026, retreating from today's peak of about 204,820 tomans to roughly 200,000 to 201,000 tomans, after a two-day surge that had first pushed it above the 200,000-toman mark. Global gold, domestic 18-karat gold and the Emami gold coin fell in tandem. A day earlier, Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati had announced the bank would keep supplying an average of $175 million a day in foreign exchange and would allocate $20 billion to industry by the end of the Iranian calendar year, describing the recent widening of the exchange-rate gap as "temporary."
Background
The free-market dollar, which had mostly traded between 185,000 and 190,000 tomans through mid-Mordad (early August), accelerated in late Mordad. On the evening of Sunday, August 23, 2026, it crossed 200,000 tomans for the first time in at least a month, trading as high as 201,300 tomans that night. By the next morning, Monday, August 24, it had reached 201,810 tomans. The climb continued into today: according to tgju.org, the dollar opened this morning at 204,620 tomans and touched an intraday peak of 204,820 tomans, a jump of nearly 3.5% from Sunday's high in under two days. By this evening, though, the market had reversed.
Today's numbers
Per Sahmino's own feed, the dollar stood at 200,400 tomans at 17:34 Tehran time today, down 1,795 tomans (0.9%) from yesterday's close. tgju.org, checked around the same time (17:41), put the rate at 200,800 tomans, down 1,395 tomans on the day, with today's low at 200,660 tomans. Alanchand.com, updated at 17:40, quoted a sell price of 201,100 tomans and a buy price of 199,100 tomans. All three sources agree the rate has returned to the 200,000-toman range after this morning's peak.
The Emami coin fell to roughly 215,980,000 tomans this evening, down close to 7,000,000 tomans (3.26%) from yesterday. tgju.org recorded yesterday's coin price at 222,005,000 tomans and today's at 216,000,000 tomans, a drop of about 6,000,000 tomans; the coin had traded as high as 224,000,000 tomans earlier today. Global gold fell 0.78% ($36.08) to $4,613.59 an ounce, and domestic 18-karat gold dropped 2.46% (528,800 tomans) to 21,493,400 tomans; according to EcoIran, that same gram price had reached 22,324,000 tomans this morning.
Drivers
The main driver behind today's pullback is the central bank governor's remarks. Speaking to members of Iran's Entrepreneurs Assembly on Monday, August 24, Abdolnasser Hemmati said the central bank is supplying an average of $175 million a day in foreign exchange and will allocate $20 billion to cover industry's FX needs by the end of the year. According to Mehr News Agency, he also announced a plan to secure 700,000 billion tomans in financing without resorting to money printing, through supply-chain financing tools. Hemmati said inflation's pace has stopped accelerating and liquidity growth is slowing, and he described the recent widening of the exchange-rate gap as "temporary," saying short-term volatility should not change the direction of currency policy.
Separately, Hossein Tajiknejad, head of the central bank's foreign-exchange allocation department, told EcoIran that this year the bank has worked to ease export flows and the repatriation of export earnings, including by setting up direct agreements between importers and exporters and cutting out some intermediaries in commercial FX allocation, to shorten the queue for FX allocation.
Outlook
According to EcoIran, if the central bank pursues more effective market intervention, part of the past two days' jump, which the outlet attributes to inflationary expectations and psychological pressure, could unwind, pulling the dollar back below 200,000 tomans. The same report also pointed to regional diplomacy: the presence of two Pakistani political and military officials in Tehran and the possibility of a visit by a senior Qatari delegation, which EcoIran said could ease some of the currency market's price tension. At the same time, the report cautioned that macro trends, including an estimated 1,500,000-billion-toman government budget deficit this year and liquidity growth of 55% to 56%, could put renewed upward pressure on world currencies' prices in the coming months. This outlook reflects EcoIran's and central bank officials' own assessment, not a certainty; the report itself says there is no definite answer to whether the dollar will necessarily stay above 200,000 tomans, and it cautioned the public against making emotional financial decisions, whether out of fear of missing out or hope for quick profit, during periods of market turmoil.
Bottom line
The dollar, global gold, domestic gold and the Emami coin all retreated together this evening, Tuesday, August 25, 2026, a day after the central bank governor announced $175 million a day in FX supply and a $20 billion industry plan. The key point is that this pullback reversed only part of the dollar's two-day jump to the 204,000-toman range; the rate is still above Sunday's level of 201,000 tomans. Until the central bank's announced intervention shows a lasting effect, today's dip should be read as a pause in the recent weeks' upward trend, not a definitive end to it.
What to watch
In the coming days, watch whether the dollar stabilizes in the 200,000-toman range or retests today's peak of 204,820 tomans; whether the central bank's $175-million daily FX supply figure holds up in the weeks ahead; and whether the regional diplomatic developments EcoIran cited as part of the price outlook show concrete progress. For live rates, see Sahmino's dollar price page and Emami coin price page; for the mechanics of how a Federal Reserve decision reaches the Tehran dollar and coin market, see this Sahmino explainer.
