Can Iran Still Fund the IRGC With Crypto? Treasury Just Sanctioned Another Exchange

The US Treasury sanctioned crypto exchange BitBank on Thursday. The platform was used to move hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the department alleges.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also designated BitBank’s software developer and three associates of Babak Zanjani. The Iranian financier already sits on the US sanctions list.

Treasury Hits Iran’s Crypto Rails as BitBank and Its Developer Land on Sanctions List

BitBank is an Iranian digital asset exchange. Zanjani has advertised its services on its social media accounts since at least 2024, according to the Treasury. Several firms on Zanjani’s sanctions evasion list the exchange as a partner.

According to OFAC, Zanjani routed hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC through BitBank. Those transfers ran between June and July. Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, designated separately, has passed payments to the regime through the exchange since June.

The sanctions also extended to Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, the developer of BitBank’s digital assets software. The developer is a subsidiary of Dot One Value Creation Group, which OFAC designated earlier.

Three Dot One executives also landed on the list. Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein brokered digital asset transactions that reached the IRGC, Treasury said. Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein runs Pishtaz Simorgh, while Seyed Adel Heidari serves as vice chairman of Dot One’s board.

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent framed the action as a warning to anyone financing Tehran.

“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach. If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you,” he said.

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Washington Keeps Squeezing Iran’s Crypto Rails

Thursday’s designations extend the US’s Iran-focused enforcement. OFAC blacklisted exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether in August over IRGC-linked transfers. Weeks earlier, it went after a crypto-funded Hormuz toll scheme built around maritime insurance firms.

Earlier this month, the department declared Iran’s digital asset sector sanctionable in full. The campaign reaches well past crypto. The Treasury designated Russia’s VTB Bank on September 14 over alleged correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks.

The actions flow from Executive Order 13902 and Operation Economic Outcast. Bessent announced the campaign on August 24 and dubbed it “Economic D-Day.”

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