The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned four Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges and two senior executives at Nobitex after accusing the platforms of helping sanctioned entities access the digital asset ecosystem.
Summary
- The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges, including Nobitex, under its Economic Fury campaign against Iran.
- Treasury has accused Nobitex of facilitating transactions for sanctioned entities, while Chainalysis said the platform handles about 50% of Iran’s crypto trading volume.
- The latest action follows Treasury’s disclosure that it has seized nearly $1 billion in crypto from Iranian exchanges and wallets since the conflict began.
According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the latest action targets Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex under its ongoing “Economic Fury” campaign against Iran. The department said U.S. persons and businesses are now prohibited from providing services to the designated exchanges.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Iranian government has adopted digital asset technologies to evade sanctions and move wealth despite the country’s worsening economic conditions. He added that Treasury would continue tracing financial activity linked to Iran through both traditional banking channels and cryptocurrency networks.
Introduced on April 14, Treasury’s Economic Fury campaign has become a central part of Washington’s effort to isolate Iran financially during the conflict that began after joint U.S. and Israeli strikes in February. U.S. officials have also linked the campaign to efforts to stop Iran from advancing its nuclear program.
Just days before announcing the new sanctions, Bessent disclosed that Treasury had seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iranian exchanges and wallets since the conflict began.
Treasury targets Iran’s largest crypto exchange
According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, Nobitex sits at the core of Iran’s “digital dollar pipeline” and accounts for roughly 50% of the country’s cryptocurrency trading activity.
The Treasury has described Nobitex as a key financial platform serving sanctioned Iranian entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Treasury also alleged that the exchange has facilitated surveillance activities directed at Iranian civilians.
Alongside the platform itself, Treasury added Nobitex chief executive Seyed Ali Khoee and chairman Amir Hossein Rad to the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list.
Recent reporting by Reuters has drawn additional attention to the exchange. Reuters reported that Nobitex was founded in 2018 by brothers Ali and Mohammad Kharrazi, who used the surname Aghamir, and that the pair belong to a politically connected Iranian family.
Reuters also reported that Nobitex claims to serve 11 million users and process about 70% of Iran’s crypto transactions.
Nobitex rejected allegations of direct government ties, describing itself as a private and independent company. The exchange told the news agency it has no relationship or contractual arrangement with the IRGC, Iran’s central bank, or other state institutions.
Crypto activity linked to Nobitex has also drawn attention during periods of military escalation. Earlier reporting by crypto.news, citing data from Elliptic, found that withdrawals from the platform surged more than 700% shortly after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran.
Elliptic said withdrawals exceeded $500,000 shortly after the attacks and approached $3 million between Feb. 28 and March 1.
While Elliptic said Nobitex allows users to convert Iranian rials into cryptocurrency and move funds to external wallets, TRM Labs offered a more cautious assessment. According to TRM Labs, part of the activity may have been influenced by internet outages that reduced transaction volumes after Iran’s connectivity reportedly fell about 99%.
Actions against Iran have already blocked access to funding channels worth tens of billions of dollars, the Treasury Department added. Recent actions include sanctions targeting alleged shadow banking networks, companies involved in Iran’s oil trade, and foreign officials accused of supporting Tehran’s military activities.
Crypto remains a focus of Treasury enforcement
The latest measures continue a pattern of Treasury actions targeting cryptocurrency infrastructure that officials say supports sanctioned governments, terrorist organizations, and criminal networks.
In May, Treasury sanctioned two networks linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel over allegations that cryptocurrency transactions were used to move fentanyl trafficking proceeds. Treasury designated multiple individuals and six Ethereum wallet addresses as part of that operation.
At the time, Bessent said authorities would continue pursuing financial networks used by criminal organizations. Treasury has similarly stated that sanctions, asset seizures, and wallet designations remain central tools in its effort to disrupt funding channels used by adversarial states and illicit actors.
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