The United States imposes sanctions on the largest Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex in a major campaign of “economic outrage.”

The Treasury Department alleged that Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges enabled sanctions evasion while processing transactions linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and regime insiders.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, along with three other Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges. This step comes within the framework of the economic anger campaign launched by the Donald Trump administration, which aims to increase economic pressure on Tehran.

Treasury sanctions apply to Nobitex, Walex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. US officials claim that these exchanges helped users bypass sanctions, facilitate Iran-related financial activity, and process transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Terrorist financing and the risks of sanctions evasion

In an official statement this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said He claimed Iran is increasingly using digital asset technologies to advance its “corrupt agenda,” including circumventing sanctions and moving wealth out of the country. He added that the Treasury Department will continue to track financial activity through traditional banking channels and digital assets as part of the administration’s broader efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

According to the Treasury Department, Nobitex processed more than 50% of all Iranian digital asset flows in 2025 and played a central role in the country’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. The agency alleged that the exchange facilitated payments related to Iranian terrorist activities, sanctions evasion efforts, and IRGC-related transactions, including activities involving IRGC ransomware actors. The Treasury Department also accused Nobitex of helping the Central Bank of Iran access hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins used to back the Iranian rial and enabling insiders to access international cryptocurrency exchanges across multiple jurisdictions.

The Treasury said Nobitex helped protect assets and move them out of the country despite an internet outage since the start of the war. In addition to sanctioning the exchange, OFAC designated Amir Hussein Rad, Nobitex’s chairman, co-founder and former CEO, along with several other company leaders and officials.

According to their findings, RAD helped restore Nobitex’s operations after the platform suffer $90 million hack in June 2025.

The agency also imposed sanctions on Nobitex founders Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali and Seyed Mohammad Agamir Mohammad Ali, both members of the Kharrazi family, which the Treasury Department described as part of the inner circle of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The current CEO of Nobitex, Syed Ali Khoi, has also been appointed.

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Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex were also targeted

Meanwhile, Wallex, identified as Iran’s second-largest digital asset exchange by volume, was said to have received 12% of Iranian digital asset flows in 2025 and allegedly facilitated transactions linked to the IRGC. Bitpin accounted for 10% of Iranian digital asset flows in 2025 and processed millions of dollars in transactions, including transfers allegedly linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, while some of its investors were reportedly linked to efforts to evade US sanctions.

Ramzinex, a Tehran-based exchange founded in 2018, processed more than $2.45 billion in transactions and allegedly facilitated transactions linked to the IRGC and an Iranian government-backed financial institution.