US sanctions two Iran-linked crypto exchanges in Treasury crackdown

The US Treasury sanctioned two Iranian crypto exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, on Friday for processing transactions tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The move expands the Trump administration's "Economic Fury" campaign, which has progressively tightened the noose around Iran's digital-asset infrastructure over the past year.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the two platforms for moving large sums of digital assets to evade sanctions and fund the IRGC and other US-designated groups. Shelbit's founder, Siavash Kayvanpour, was also blacklisted, along with companies he controls in Georgia, Poland and the UAE. OFAC said Shelbit processed over $1 million in crypto and pulled back more than $2 million from wallets associated with the IRGC.

The wallets controlled by Kayvanpour allegedly moved over $2 million to Nobitex, Iran's largest local exchange, which the Treasury added to its sanctions list in June. Aban Tether was blacklisted for facilitating millions of dollars in transactions involving Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, all of which are already sanctioned.

Beyond the alleged money laundering for the Iranian government, OFAC accused Shelbit of servicing a network of more than 2,000 gambling websites run by two Iranian social media influencers. The exchange processed tens of millions of dollars for that network, the agency said.

The designation overlaps with a Reuters investigation published a week earlier. That probe found Shelbit had moved at least $4 billion through its platforms over two years, with funds flowing via Iranian gambling sites, the Iranian central bank and the IRGC.

Part of that $4 billion allegedly passed through Binance. At least $676 million moved from Shelbit-connected wallets onto the exchange, including roughly $540 million that arrived after Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority fined the exchange in January 2025 for operating without a license. VARA imposed another fine in July and ordered Shelbit to cease operations. Binance denied holding any accounts controlled by Shelbit, calling the $540 million figure inaccurate and saying any accounts linked to Shelbit users had already been frozen and reported to authorities.

Friday's designations are the latest step in a year-long Treasury effort to isolate Iran's financial sector. OFAC identified Zedcex and Zedxion as the first targets of the Iran-specific sanctions in January, added Nobitex in June and blacklisted four wallets tied to Iran's central bank last month. Tether froze about $131 million in Iran-linked USDT on Tron in response to the designations, as crypto market analysis noted at the time.

The Treasury also labelled a set of foreign-exchange trading companies, shell companies and individuals involved in moving hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran, including transactions related to oil exports.

"The Iranian regime's growing reliance on digital assets and shadow banking is yet another sign that Economic Fury is working," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Whether transacting in dollars, rials, or crypto, the Department of the Treasury will continue to identify and dismantle the networks that fund the Iranian regime."

The sanctions landed during a period of heightened military confrontation between the US and Iran, and pressure on the Iranian rial is intensifying. Exchanges and stablecoin issuers face growing scrutiny to filter out Iranian-linked transactions, since blockchain records are transparent and OFAC monitors them continuously for new targets.

The action against Shelbit and Aban Tether follows the CLARITY Act odds sinking to 27% after Senate delays, part of a broader Washington push to tighten crypto enforcement. The Treasury has not specified a timeline for further designations.