OFAC goes full node: Treasury slaps sectoral sanctions on Iran's entire crypto scene 🪙

The US Treasury expanded its Iran sanctions framework to cover the country's digital asset sector, citing over $100 million in crypto payments allegedly used to facilitate Iranian oil sales. On Monday, the Treasury said the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sectoral sanctions determinations covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping, and sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels across nuclear, missile, cyber and oil networks. The digital asset determination allows OFAC to sanction foreign individuals and companies that operate in or provide services supporting Iran's digital asset sector.

The Treasury said Iran increasingly uses crypto as a "tool of choice for sanctions evasion," including for transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and government insiders. It alleged that UAE-based Ukrainian broker Ivan Obukhov processed over $100 million in crypto payments since 2023 to facilitate oil sales on behalf of the IRGC's Quds Force. OFAC sanctioned Obukhov and his UAE-based company, Foscom FZE. The Treasury said designated parties' US-linked property must be blocked, while foreign banks facilitating significant transactions for them could face restrictions on access to US accounts.

The sector-wide measure follows earlier US actions against named crypto exchanges and wallets linked to Iran. In January, OFAC sanctioned UK-registered Zedcex and Zedxion, marking its first Iran-related designations of digital asset exchanges. On June 3, the Treasury sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges, including the country's largest platform, Nobitex. The action came days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US had seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iranian exchanges and wallets. On Aug. 7, OFAC sanctioned exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether, alleging they facilitated a combined $5 million in digital assets connected to Iran.

Separately on Thursday, OFAC announced sanctions against Iranian crypto exchange BitBank, accusing it of processing $BTC paid by ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. OFAC said that as of June, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the IRGC. The Treasury alleged the platform is part of the architecture used by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani to move hundreds of millions of dollars in $BTC to the IRGC. The agency also designated Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company and three associates of Zanjani, calling them "key components of the Iranian regime's digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure."

"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," Bessent said. Treasury's designation lists BitBank as having been established in 2024 and notes it is a separate entity from bitbank, inc, a Japan-licensed exchange acquired by SBI Holdings in June. The latest actions build on prior enforcement, including a July order freezing more than $130 million in USDt held in wallets linked to Iran, as the Treasury continues to widen the digital-asset perimeter around Tehran.