The US Treasury sanctioned Iranian crypto exchange BitBank on Thursday, accusing the platform of processing Bitcoin payments collected through a maritime toll scheme in the Strait of Hormuz and moving hundreds of millions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The action is the latest step in a sanctions campaign that has now hit at least seven Iranian digital asset exchanges this year and signals that Washington intends to keep squeezing Tehran’s crypto rails even as other parts of the Iran portfolio dominate headlines.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority began using BitBank in June to transfer payments it collected from vessels transiting the strait. Treasury has previously described Hormuz Safe as part of an IRGC-backed arrangement that forces ships to buy maritime insurance for passage, including coverage against seizure by Iran itself. Vessels that refuse to pay face the risk of interdiction in one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints, where strikes on tankers have continued this week and where the Guard Corps has direct operational control of the enforcement apparatus.
According to OFAC, the transfers ran through an architecture built by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, already on the US sanctions list, and moved hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC between June and July. Zanjani was originally sanctioned years ago for helping Iran sell oil in violation of embargo rules, and Treasury now casts him as the architect of the regime’s digital asset laundering channels.
Who was designated
The designations cover BitBank, its software developer Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company and three associates of Zanjani. Treasury described the group as “key components of the Iranian regime’s digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure.” Including the software developer in the package is notable: it extends the action beyond the exchange itself to the code that runs it, a signal to vendors building tools for Iranian platforms.
“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The action falls under Operation Economic Outcast, the whole-of-government economic campaign against Iran that Bessent launched on August 24. It is part of a broader effort to isolate Tehran from the international financial system, including through sanctions on digital asset exchanges.
A widening pattern
Thursday’s move follows a steady drumbeat of designations this year. In June, Treasury sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges including Nobitex, the country’s largest. In August it hit two more, Shelbit and Aban Tether, for assisting sanctions evasion. In July, the US government ordered the freezing of more than $130 million in USDt held in wallets linked to Iran, most of it Tether’s stablecoin, the first large-scale stablecoin freeze tied to the campaign.
| Date | Action | Target |
|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | OFAC designations | Four exchanges including Nobitex |
| July 2026 | Freeze order | Over $130 million in USDt linked to Iran |
| August 2026 | OFAC designations | Shelbit and Aban Tether |
| September 2026 | OFAC designations | BitBank, Pishtaz Simorgh, three Zanjani associates |
OFAC first flagged the shipping angle in July, saying Hormuz Safe, developed by Iran’s Ministry of Economy, accepts payment in Bitcoin and other digital assets from ships passing through the strait so the regime can bypass sanctions. Treasury framed BitBank as the exchange leg of that pipeline, converting ship payments into funds that reach the Guard Corps. The July freeze showed the government was already tracing these flows onchain before Thursday’s public designation followed.
Iran adapts
Tehran has responded by loosening its own controls. Earlier this month the Financial Times reported that Iran’s central bank eased foreign currency controls to encourage businesses to bring overseas earnings home, including through cryptocurrency, as US sanctions tightened. The central bank is effectively turning to the same rails Washington is trying to close, which sets up a running contest between Iranian adaptation and US designations.
One naming note matters for market participants: the sanctioned Iranian BitBank, which Treasury lists as established in 2024, has no connection to bitbank, inc, the licensed Japanese exchange founded in 2014 that SBI Holdings acquired in June. The Japanese platform is a separate legal entity and remains unaffected. Compliance teams screening counterparties will need to distinguish the two carefully, since the shared name creates obvious confusion risk in KYC databases and sanctions screening systems that match on names rather than identifiers.
Cointelegraph reached out to BitBank for comment and received no immediate response. The designation blocks any property or interests in property of the named parties that fall under US jurisdiction and exposes foreign banks and exchanges that deal with them to secondary sanctions risk.
The practical effect on crypto markets is likely modest. Iranian volumes are small relative to global flow, but the action adds to a body of precedent that has accumulated quickly this year. OFAC has now designated exchanges, developers and individual facilitators in a single package, and the July freeze showed stablecoin issuers will execute US orders on large balances tied to Iran. For exchanges outside US jurisdiction, the message is that processing funds tied to designated Iranian schemes carries direct designation risk, regardless of where the platform is domiciled.
The timing also intersects with the military picture. Iranian forces struck more ships in the Strait of Hormuz this week, and the House approved new sanctions on Iran and Russia on Wednesday, so the crypto action lands as part of a wider escalation rather than a standalone measure. Analysts tracking the campaign expect further designations as long as the Hormuz payment scheme stays in operation.