CoinEx's $3.84B Iran-linked flows draw fresh sanctions risk

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran-linked entities moved more than $3.84 billion through crypto exchange CoinEx since 2019. The report cited TRM Labs and public on-chain data. It said CoinEx became one of the main crypto routes allegedly used to move funds outside U.S. sanctions.

Investigators found unusual activity from two wallets controlled by the Central Bank of Iran earlier this year, the WSJ said. Those funds had links to assets stolen from Bybit by North Korean hackers. The report did not announce a new U.S. action against CoinEx. The claims still place the exchange under fresh review.

The FBI previously blamed North Korean actors for the Bybit theft, which involved about $1.5 billion in virtual assets. U.S. officials said the hackers were converting stolen assets into Bitcoin and other tokens across many wallets.

The U.S. Treasury has already sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges, including Nobitex, under its Economic Fury campaign. The agency accused the platforms of helping sanctioned entities enter the digital asset market. Chainalysis said Nobitex handled about half of Iran’s crypto trading activity. U.S. officials also seized nearly $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto and froze $344 million in USDT across two Tron wallets tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.