US sanctions Iran's largest crypto exchange over IRGC links

The US announced sanctions on Nobitex, Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, on Tuesday, accusing it of enabling the Iranian government and blacklisted state institutions to circumvent western sanctions.

The new sanctions follow a Reuters investigation published on 1 May, which showed how Nobitex had become a central node in a parallel financial system used to process hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The report also revealed how Nobitex continued operating even after the government-imposed internet shutdown, processing millions of dollars of transactions.

“While Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an emailed statement.

The Reuters investigation showed how Nobitex is controlled by two brothers from one of Iran’s most powerful families, with close ties to the new supreme leader. The two are members of the Kharrazi family, one of the most influential dynasties in the Islamic Republic. Corporate records show that when the exchange began, the brothers were listed under a surname rarely used by family members.

The US Treasury announced on Tuesday that the two brothers, Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali and Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali, had also been individually sanctioned, along with the exchange’s chief executive officer, Amir Hossein Rad.