Treasury Sanctions Crypto Exchanges It Says Laundered Millions for Iran

The U.S. Treasury just sanctioned two crypto exchanges it says laundered millions for Iran's Revolutionary Guard—naming one operator who ran the scheme from Georgia and the UAE, and a second platform based in Iran.

OFAC announced the action on August 7 under its "Economic Fury" campaign. "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. A separate, simultaneous action went after Iran's traditional shadow-banking network.

The centerpiece is Siavash Kayvanpour. He's Iran-born, holds Dominica and Afghanistan citizenship, and ran a multi-country network from the UAE and Georgia. Through his Georgia firm SHPS Shelbit, he operated Shelbit Exchange.

Treasury says Iranian armed forces-linked wallets sent over $1 million in crypto to Shelbit, and Shelbit sent more than $2 million back to Iranian wallets—plus another $2 million to Nobitex, an Iranian exchange that was already sanctioned for terrorist financing.

Shelbit also laundered tens of millions from a Persian-language online gambling network, Treasury alleges.

The UAE's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) took enforcement action against Shelbit General Trading in January 2025 and again in July 2026, but the exchange remained in business, Treasury said. Kayvanpour also ran Poland-based Shelbit Technologies and UAE-based Crypto Home and NFT Home DMCC, all designated alongside Shelbit.

The second exchange, Aban Tether, processed millions in transactions with previously designated Iranian platforms including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. Both were designated under authorities targeting Iran's financial sector and its support for terrorism.

The designations add the entities to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List—the U.S. government's blocklist of people and firms cut off from the American financial system. Any U.S.-touching property is frozen, and foreign firms that keep dealing with them risk secondary sanctions.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $15 million for information that disrupts the financial mechanisms of the IRGC, Iran’s military. The crypto seizures are part of a sustained push against Iran’s reliance on crypto: Just in May, the U.S. froze $131 million in Iran-linked crypto and, per Bessent, seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto since the campaign began.

As of August 7, Shelbit Exchange, Aban Tether, and the named individuals are on the SDN List, their U.S.-touching assets blocked.