U.S. sanctions Iran’s Nobitex exchange over sanctions evasion and militant financing

Treasury moved against Iran’s largest digital asset exchange on Tuesday, saying Nobitex helped channel money for sanctions evasion, militant financing and access to hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins that supported the Iranian rial. The action put a spotlight on a basic question for Washington’s sanctions campaign: if an exchange can function as a financial bridge outside the banking system, can digital infrastructure still serve as a back door even under intense scrutiny?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Nobitex and three other Iranian digital asset exchanges, and also sanctioned Nobitex chairman, co-founder and former chief executive Amir Hossein Rad. Treasury said Nobitex processed more than 50% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025, handled payments tied to terrorism and sanctions evasion, and moved funds linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Officials said the company helped regime insiders reach international exchanges across multiple jurisdictions and helped protect and move assets out of Iran after U.S. combat operations began and during internet blackouts.

Treasury said the designations were taken under Executive Orders 13224 and 13902, part of the Trump administration’s “Economic Fury” campaign and its broader maximum-pressure strategy on Iran. The department said it is following money through both banks and digital assets to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. In parallel, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program offered up to $15 million for information that could disrupt the IRGC’s financial mechanisms.

The move lands after Nobitex had already drawn sustained scrutiny from investigators and blockchain analysts. The exchange was founded in 2018 by brothers Ali Kharrazi and Mohammad Kharrazi, and it claimed 11 million users. Former employees said they knew the platform was used by Iran’s government and security agencies to bypass sanctions. Nobitex denied any agreement with government agencies and said it had faced office raids, domain blocking and banking gateway closures.

Elliptic said Nobitex was hacked for more than $90 million in June 2025 and had become the dominant venue for digital asset trading in Iran. The firm also said the exchange had grown into critical infrastructure for the country’s crypto economy, making it a major compliance risk for global exchanges and other firms that may touch Iranian-linked flows. For U.S. sanctions policy, the message was clear: when the target is not a bank but an exchange embedded in a parallel financial system, the government is treating digital finance not as a side channel but as a central enforcement battlefield.