US Sanctions Iranian Exchange BitBank Over Bitcoin Transfers to the IRGC and Hormuz Passage Fees

Treasury says the Tehran exchange moved hundreds of millions in bitcoin to the Revolutionary Guards and handled fees collected from tankers buying passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

US sanctions Iranian exchange Bitbank over IRGC bitcoin transfers

Original Image Credits: SouthEastern Star / flickr.com

Posted September 18, 2026 at 6:18 am EST.

The US Treasury sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran cryptocurrency exchange, on Thursday, saying the platform moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The Office of Foreign Assets Control described BitBank as a priority digital assets venture controlled by Babak Zanjani, the Iranian financier it designated in January.

The action also covers Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, which the Treasury said built BitBank’s software and is a subsidiary of the already-designated Dot One Value Creation Group, along with three Dot One executives: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari. Treasury said Zanjani used BitBank between June and July to move the bitcoin to the IRGC, and made the designations under Executive Order 13902, which reaches Iran’s digital asset sector. Efforts to fund the regime with cryptocurrency are “not beyond OFAC’s reach,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the release.