OFAC lists Tehran crypto exchange BitBank under Iran financial-sector sanctions

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday listed BitBank, also known as BitBank3, on the Specially Designated Nationals list under Executive Order 13902, the same Iran-sanctions order it used Monday against Russia's VTB Bank. Treasury called BitBank an Iranian digital assets exchange, a Tehran platform established in 2024 and controlled by Babak Morteza Zanjani. The names carry the secondary-sanctions marker: U.S. persons are generally barred from dealing with them, and non-U.S. persons who do can be listed themselves. No U.S.-listed crypto or shipping fund discloses a holding in the newly listed names.

Treasury said that since June, OFAC-designated Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime, and that between June and July Zanjani used the platform to move hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The same action listed Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, which Treasury described as BitBank's software developer and a subsidiary of Zanjani's Dot One Value Creation Group. Both firms share a Tehran address, were founded in 2024, and are classed as financial and insurance activities.

Babak Morteza Zanjani is the thread through Thursday's names. OFAC designated the oil financier in January with two UK-registered digital-asset exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, after Treasury said he embezzled billions of dollars from the National Iranian Oil Company, was sentenced to death in 2016, and had the sentence commuted in 2024; in July it designated his Dot One conglomerate. Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein is listed as linked to Zanjani. Treasury said he had brokered digital-asset transfers that ended up at the IRGC. Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, also known as Hamed Zaker Hossein, is listed as linked to Pishtaz Simorgh; Treasury called him the firm's chief executive. Seyed Adel Heidari is listed as linked to Dot One, where Treasury said he is vice chairman of the board.

U.S. persons were already generally prohibited from Iranian digital-asset exchanges, which OFAC treats as blocked Iranian financial institutions whether or not they appear on the SDN list. Thursday's listing adds them to the secondary-sanctions file. OFAC's published guidance says it may designate non-U.S. persons who provide material support to an exchange listed under the order, and it may prohibit or impose strict conditions on correspondent or payable-through accounts, the dollar-clearing lines foreign banks keep in the United States, for a foreign financial institution that has knowingly conducted or facilitated a significant transaction for such an exchange. Treasury pointed to that guidance and said it will pursue international actors who help facilitate Iran's digital-asset activity. Secretary Scott Bessent said the designations "make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach."