US Sanctions BitBank, Allegedly Disbursing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Bitcoin to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

JAKARTA - The United States has imposed sanctions on the Iranian crypto exchange BitBank for allegedly helping channel hundreds of millions of US dollars worth of Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC. The sanctions also target BitBank developers and three people associated with Iranian financier Babak Zanjani.

According to Anadolu Agency, quoted on Friday, September 18, the sanctions were imposed through the Office of Foreign Assets Control or OFAC, an agency under the US Department of the Treasury that handles economic sanctions. BitBank and its developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronics, are on the list.

The US Treasury Department accused Zanjani of using BitBank between June and July to help move hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC. The transaction was said to be part of an effort to evade US sanctions.

BitBank is also said to be an important part of the network that Zanjani is suspected of using to launder funds and move money to entities linked to the Iranian government.

"Today's designation of Iran's digital asset infrastructure makes clear that efforts to fund the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.