The US Treasury sanctioned two Iranian crypto exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, on Friday for facilitating transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This move expands the Trump administration’s “Economic Fury” campaign.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the two exchanges for processing large sums of digital assets through them to avoid sanctions and fund the IRGC and other terrorist groups designated by the US.
OFAC names founder in sanctions
According to reports, Siavash Kayvanpour, the founder of Shelbit, was also sanctioned, along with his companies in Georgia, Poland, and the UAE. However, OFAC specified the amount of crypto transferred through Shelbit. It mentioned that the Iranian exchange processed over $1 million in crypto and pulled back over $2 million from wallets associated with the IRGC.
The wallets controlled by Siavash Kayvanpour allegedly moved more than 2 million to Iran’s largest local exchange, Nobitex, which the US Treasury added to the sanctions list in June. Aban Tether, an Iranian exchange, was blacklisted for facilitating millions of dollars in transactions for Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, which are also on the sanctions list.
US traces Iran’s $4B crypto flows
In addition to money laundering for the Iranian government, OFAC accused Shelbit of providing services to a network of more than 2,000 gambling websites managed by two Iranian social media influencers. The exchange processed tens of millions of dollars in transactions for this network.
This information overlaps with the findings of a Reuters investigation a week earlier. It revealed that Shelbit had moved at least $4 billion in two years through its platforms. This sum was transferred via Iranian gambling sites, the Iranian central bank, and the IRGC, according to the investigation.
Part of this $4 billion reportedly passed through Binance. At least $676 million moved from Shelbit-connected wallets onto the exchange. This included roughly $540 million that went to the Iranian exchange after it was penalized by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) of Dubai in January 2025 for operating without a license. Earlier, Cryptopolitan reported that US and Tether froze $131M in Iran-linked USDT on Tron.
