US Sanctions Iranian Exchange BitBank Over Bitcoin Transfers to the IRGC and Hormuz Passage Fees

The US Treasury sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran cryptocurrency exchange, on Thursday, saying the platform moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The Office of Foreign Assets Control described BitBank as a priority digital assets venture controlled by Babak Zanjani, the Iranian financier it designated in January.

The action also covers Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, which the Treasury said built BitBank’s software and is a subsidiary of the already-designated Dot One Value Creation Group, along with three Dot One executives: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari. Treasury said Zanjani used BitBank between June and July to move the bitcoin to the IRGC, and made the designations under Executive Order 13902, which reaches Iran’s digital asset sector. Efforts to fund the regime with cryptocurrency are “not beyond OFAC’s reach,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the release.

The practical weight sits in the secondary sanctions exposure attached to every name. A crypto venue in Dubai or a bank in Istanbul that processes BitBank flows can be cut off from the US financial system without any American ever touching the transaction, which turns the designation into a compliance problem for offshore exchanges serving Iranian users. OFAC published no wallet addresses alongside it.

The exchange also sat inside Iran’s maritime toll operation. Since June, Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, the body Tehran uses to sell ships safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, has used BitBank to pass collections on to regime entities, according to Treasury. Hormuz Safe was itself sanctioned in July.

Thursday’s designations fall under Operation Economic Outcast, the campaign Bessent announced on Aug. 24 as a continuation of Economic Fury, under which OFAC sanctioned Nobitex and three other Iranian exchanges in June and added Shelbit and Aban Tether in August. The Hormuz platform surfaced publicly in May, when Iranian reports said it targeted $10 billion in revenue from bitcoin-settled maritime insurance.

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