DOJ Sniffs Iran’s Crypto Bootlegged via Binance

Despite rosy assessments by President Donald Trump and the U.S. military, the American war with Iran, now in its seventh month, has not been a quick excursion. Iran has shown surprising resistance, aided partially by geography, a growing conflict in Yemen, and economic lifelines that the U.S. has strained to control.

Responding to these challenges, the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched a maximum-pressure economic campaign on August 24. Dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast” and billed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as an “Economic D-Day,” the campaign aims to fully isolate Iran’s finances by targeting illicit revenue and forcing third parties, such as foreign governments, international financial institutions, and trading partners, to cut their contact with Iran.

The operation widened the reach of U.S. secondary sanctions across five sectors: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the arm of the Treasury that administers and enforces sanctions, has since targeted shadow banking networks, shadow fleet vessels and digital asset infrastructure.

Hormuz Tolls, Paid in Bitcoin

Among these sectors, digital assets are arguably the most difficult to contain. On September 17, the Treasury announced sanctions on the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank.