US Treasury Sanctions Two Iran-Linked Crypto Exchanges Over $4 Billion Scheme

Two exchanges just found out the hard way that operating quietly out of Dubai doesnt put you beyond the reach of US sanctions enforcement.

The US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two crypto exchanges, Dubai-based Shelbit and Aban Tether, alleging they laundered funds for Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as part of a $4 billion sanctions-evasion and shadow-banking scheme. The action targeted six entities and one individual spanning Iran, Georgia, Poland, and the UAE.

The case traces back to a July 31 Reuters investigation that first uncovered the scheme, giving OFAC a documented paper trail to act on rather than building the case from scratch internally, a pattern thats become increasingly common in crypto-related sanctions enforcement.

Sanctions like these typically freeze any US-linked assets tied to the named entities and prohibit US persons and financial institutions from transacting with them, effectively cutting the sanctioned exchanges off from most of the international financial system even if they continue operating regionally.

The action adds to a steady stream of enforcement actions this year targeting crypto infrastructure used to route around sanctions, reflecting how central digital assets have become to both legitimate cross-border finance and the specific evasion schemes regulators are trying to shut down.

Want to understand how crypto sanctions enforcement actually works and what it means for an exchanges operations? Learn more in the Bitcoin Academy.