Crypto▼ Bearish
Dubai exchange moved $4B in crypto for Iranian gambling ring
Dubai's VARA issued a cease-and-desist order against Shelbit on July 24, one week before Reuters published its findings on the $4B crypto sanctions-evasion network.
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A Reuters investigation published July 31, 2026 exposed how an unlicensed Dubai exchange called Shelbit processed at least $4 billion in cryptocurrency since May 2024 for a network tied to over 2,000 illegal gambling sites and linked to Iran's central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The exchange operated out of an office above a budget hotel in Dubai's Deira neighborhood. Its operator, Siavash Kayvanpour, is an Iranian expatriate. The gambling sites targeted Iranian users, who deposited funds through Iran's central bank payment systems. Iran bans gambling, so the sites operated outside the law for their operators while processing deposits through the official banking system.
Blockchain investigators traced roughly $676 million in identifiable transactions from Shelbit to Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume. The $4 billion figure represents Shelbit's full processing volume; the $676 million is the portion analysts could pin down with on-chain evidence. The network's wallet connections extended beyond gambling revenue to wallets associated with the IRGC, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.