Let E be an elliptic curve with positive rank over a number field K and let p be an odd prime number. Let $K_{\operatorname {cyc}}$ be the cyclotomic $\mathbb {Z}_p$ -extension of K and $K_n$ its nth layer. The Mordell–Weil rank of E is said to be constant in the cyclotomic tower of K if for all n, the rank of $E(K_n)$ is equal to the rank of $E(K)$ . We apply techniques in Iwasawa theory to obtain explicit conditions for the rank of an elliptic curve to be constant in this sense. We then indicate the potential applications to Hilbert’s tenth problem for number rings.