Washington Sanctions an Iranian Bitcoin Exchange

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury on Thursday sanctioned the Iranian crypto exchange BitBank, alleging it moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an organization Washington designates as a terrorist group.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control said BitBank is a “priority digital asset venture” controlled by Babak Zanjani, an Iranian financier already under U.S. sanctions over a network of companies accused of laundering money and evading the embargo. Between June and July, Treasury said, Zanjani used BitBank to send hundreds of millions in bitcoin to the IRGC.

The maritime angle

OFAC also tied the exchange to the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, the formal entity behind a bitcoin-settled maritime insurance platform first reported by Iranian media in May. Promoted as coverage for ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S.–Iran conflict flared, the platform was pitched as a way to raise more than $10 billion. Treasury says Hormuz Safe has used BitBank to move payments to the regime since June.

Alongside the exchange, the agency designated BitBank’s software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, and three associates of Zanjani. Both BitBank and Pishtaz Simorgh were named subject to secondary sanctions, which reach beyond U.S. firms to threaten any foreign party that transacts with them.

A pattern, not a one-off

The action is the latest in a widening campaign against the crypto rails Iran uses to sidestep sanctions. In June, OFAC hit Nobitex—Iran’s largest exchange, which Treasury said processed more than half of the country’s digital-asset inflows in 2025—along with Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex under an effort branded “Economic Fury.” In August it sanctioned two more, Shelbit and Aban Tether. Thursday’s designations fall under a successor campaign, “Operation Economic Outcast,” launched August 24.

The ledger does not know who is sending or why. That neutrality is the feature Tehran is exploiting and the one Washington is trying to fence off.

“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you.”

What it says about bitcoin

The story is a reminder of where bitcoin’s neutrality begins and ends. The base layer processed these transactions the way it processes any others—it cannot tell a sanctioned wallet from a saver in Lagos. But the choke points are the exchanges, the on- and off-ramps where bitcoin meets the banking system, and those are firmly within reach of a Treasury that has now sanctioned at least seven Iranian platforms in four months.

Why it matters: bitcoin’s censorship-resistance is real at the protocol and porous at the edges—and the edges are exactly where governments are learning to squeeze.

The BitBank designation, Zanjani’s control, the June–July IRGC transfers, the Hormuz Safe link, the additional designations of Pishtaz Simorgh and three associates, the secondary-sanctions status and the Bessent quote are per Treasury as reported by The Block, Crypto Times, crypto.news and Bitcoin Magazine (Sept 17–18, 2026). The $10 billion Hormuz Safe revenue target reflects Iranian media reporting from May. Allegations are the Treasury’s; BitBank has not publicly responded. Informational only — not financial advice.