Placing cryptocurrencies alongside shadow banking and arms procurement means that the Treasury believes they are being used in actual trade settlement.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent posted on X on April 29 that Washington’s sanctions campaign now targets “Iran’s access to cryptocurrencies,” along with oil exports, shipping networks, and shadow banking channels.
This is the first time the Treasury Department has explicitly identified digital assets in the context of the pressure campaign on Iran, and puts cryptocurrencies squarely in the middle of a geopolitical dispute that has already moved the price of Bitcoin for weeks.
The Treasury Department links cryptocurrencies to paying sanctions on Iran
In this post, Basant He said Through what it called “economic fury,” the Treasury Department has targeted Iran’s shadow banking system, access to cryptocurrencies, arms procurement networks, and independent Chinese refineries that buy Iranian crude.
According to him, these measures had disrupted “tens of billions of dollars in revenue” that could have been used to finance terrorism, adding that Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, was approaching its storage capacity, a situation that he said could force production cuts worth about $170 million per day in lost revenue.
However, it is the mention of cryptocurrencies that stands out, as sanctions enforcement has focused for years on banks, oil traders and shipping companies. Putting digital assets in the same sentence with shadow banking and gun purchases is an indication that the Treasury believes cryptocurrencies are used not just for small transfers but as part of the actual trade settlement infrastructure.
According to market analyst Shanaka Anselm Pereira, the latest action identified 35 entities and individuals under two existing executive orders. he His name UK-registered Shuqun Ltd, which allegedly transferred more than $70 million of Iranian crude oil on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company through 2024, and Fratello Carbone Trading Limited, which is said to have transferred more than $20 million.
The total number of Iran-related targets in the context of economic anger has now exceeded 1,000 since February 25. Pereira’s reading of Besant’s language was that the warning was not primarily directed at Tehran. It has been directed to every bank, exchange and broker anywhere in the world that handles Iranian flows.
You may also like:
Why do cryptocurrencies continue to appear in the Hormuz dispute?
This isn’t the first time cryptocurrencies and Iran have clashed in the markets this month, with the Financial Times reporting on April 8 that Iranian officials were demanding Bitcoin payments for ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz. When those reports emerged, BTC to run From about $68,000 to nearly $73,000.
Since then, the situation has continued to change, including information that emerged on April 27 that Iran had submitted a new peace proposal through Pakistani mediators. this sender Bitcoin briefly reached a 12-week high near $80,000 before being rejected and falling hard.
However, yesterday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran had entered “collapse mode,” pushing oil past $100 per barrel. to withdraw BTC is below $76,000.
These price movements show how closely crypto trading now aligns with geopolitical risks, energy supply concerns, and sanctions policy, and if Washington can disrupt cryptocurrency settlement channels linked to Iranian trade, it may reduce one of the alternative solutions to sanctions. But if the alternative rails continue to operate, the crackdown could simply push more transactions away from the dollar system and into the yuan or digital assets.
