Wallets that the U.S. Treasury attributes to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps received more than $2 million from Shelbit Exchange addresses, and sent back just over $1 million. Those figures, released Friday in a Treasury press statement, are the kind of specifics that mark the difference between a crypto sanctions action and a diplomatic communiqué.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated both Shelbit Exchange and Iran-based Aban Tether, alleging each assisted Iran in shifting money beyond the reach of conventional banking.
Also named were Siavash Kayvanpour along with a number of firms linked to him across Georgia, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. Treasury says wallets owned or directed by Kayvanpour transferred over $2 million to Nobitex, the largest crypto exchange in Iran.
The second exchange’s name is misleading
Aban Tether borrows a word from crypto’s biggest stablecoin issuer, but there is no apparent link between the two. We’ve contacted Tether to confirm that the exchange has no relationship with the company.
According to the press release, Aban Tether has handled millions of dollars in transactions tied to sanctioned Iranian exchanges, among them Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex.
Crypto is the smaller share of Friday’s designations
OFAC additionally targeted a web of currency exchange houses, front companies and individuals that it says moved hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s shadow banking apparatus, including proceeds from oil sold abroad.
Weigh that against the low seven figures pinned to Shelbit and the proportions speak for themselves. Crypto serves as one channel. The pipe is still oil revenue and correspondent-style exchange houses.
“The Iranian regime’s reliance on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat.”
Why blockchains are a double-edged tool for a sanctioned state
The designations arrived while the U.S.-Iran war sharpened Washington’s effort to sever Tehran from foreign currency and international financial markets.
When banks close their doors, cryptocurrencies can hand sanctioned entities an alternative way to shift funds. The catch is that blockchain activity leaves a public record that investigators and analytics firms are able to trace.
That record is presumably what let Treasury publish numbers this exact. Figures like “more than $1 million in” and “more than $2 million out” don’t come from a wire transfer request.
A pattern, now in its fourth installment
Zedcex and Zedxion were sanctioned by Treasury in January, making them the first crypto exchanges hit under its Iran-specific financial sanctions.
June saw Nobitex and a handful of other Iranian crypto exchanges blacklisted as part of the pressure campaign on Tehran. Nobitex now appears on both sides of the ledger: sanctioned in its own right, and cited again Friday as where Kayvanpour’s $2 million ended up.
Four crypto wallets tied to Iran’s central bank were added last month. Tether, which issues the largest stablecoin USDT, subsequently froze roughly $131 million sitting in those wallets. Two Iranian maritime insurance entities were also sanctioned by the U.S. over an alleged scheme that channeled money to the IRGC.
Keep your eye on the $131 million
That freeze stands as the largest single figure across the entire sequence, and it wasn’t Treasury that carried it out. A private firm did it, at a keyboard, once the designation was in place.
That’s where the widening campaign really has teeth. It forces exchanges and stablecoin issuers to flag Iranian-linked money and stop sanctioned parties from moving it.
So if you want to know what comes next, OFAC’s press releases aren’t the place to look. Watch instead whether counterparties of Shelbit and Aban Tether find their balances frozen the way those central-bank wallets were — and how quickly. Issuing the designation is the straightforward part. Enforcement depends on companies deciding to act.