Treasury Sanctions Two More Iran-Linked Crypto Exchanges Under Its 'Economic Fury' Campaign

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether on August 7, accusing both of moving funds for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and widening a campaign that has now designated Iran-linked crypto platforms roughly every month or two since January.

OFAC's numbers describe Shelbit as considerably more than a peripheral player: blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs traced more than $6.3 billion in flows through the unlicensed, Dubai-registered exchange between May 2024 and March 2026, which OFAC described as a settlement layer for Iran's illicit economy rather than evidence of any single large transfer. Treasury said IRGC-linked wallets sent over $1 million in crypto to Shelbit and received more than $2 million back, while separate wallets tied to Shelbit's operator, Siavash Kayvanpour, sent over $2 million to Nobitex, Iran's largest exchange and already under sanction since June. OFAC also designated Kayvanpour personally, along with companies he controls in Georgia, Poland, and the UAE, and said Shelbit separately serviced a network of more than 2,000 gambling websites tied to two Iranian influencers already convicted of illegal gambling, allegedly laundering tens of millions of dollars through the same platform. The second exchange, Aban Tether, is based inside Iran and was designated for processing transactions with Nobitex and other previously sanctioned Iranian platforms including Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.