US targets Iran’s crypto lifeline: BitBank sanctioned over alleged IRGC, Hormuz payments

BitBank, developer and associates named

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated BitBank, which it said is controlled by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani.

Zanjani was already under US sanctions for his alleged role in helping Iran evade restrictions on oil and financial transactions.

OFAC also sanctioned BitBank’s developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, as well as three alleged Zanjani associates:

The designations freeze any property or interests in property held by the targets that are within US jurisdiction.

They also prohibit US persons from conducting transactions with them and expose foreign financial institutions or companies to potential sanctions risk if they knowingly facilitate significant dealings with the designated entities.

Alleged link to IRGC and Hormuz payments

Treasury said BitBank had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in digital assets to the IRGC.

It alleged that the exchange was used by Hormuz Safe, an Iranian maritime-insurance and shipping-services platform previously sanctioned by the US, to process payments collected from vessels seeking to transit safely through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.

The allegations come as the Strait of Hormuz remains a major flashpoint in the U.S.-Iran conflict. Tehran has sought to regulate, restrict or impose conditions on commercial transit through the waterway, while Washington has maintained maritime pressure on Iran and contested Tehran’s authority to control international shipping routes.

By targeting BitBank, the U.S. is attempting to cut off a financial mechanism that Treasury says helped convert payments related to maritime transit into funding for the IRGC.