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Treasury Department sanctions Nobitex for facilitating terror finance and sanctions evasion
Iran's largest crypto exchange, responsible for an estimated 70% of the country's digital asset volume, faces US sanctions over ties to the IRGC and Central Bank of Iran.
The US Treasury Department has sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest domestic cryptocurrency exchange, for its role in facilitating sanctions evasion and financing terrorist activities linked to the Iranian regime.
Nobitex is no small operation. The exchange is estimated to handle roughly 70% of Iran’s digital asset trading volume, making it the dominant on-ramp and off-ramp for crypto in a country that has long used digital currencies to sidestep international financial restrictions.
The IRGC connection
Nobitex’s ties to Iran’s state apparatus run deep. The exchange has documented connections to both the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, two entities that sit at the center of the US sanctions architecture targeting Tehran.
A Reuters investigation published in May 2026 found that Nobitex processed financial flows amounting to tens to hundreds of millions of dollars linked to sanctioned entities.
Nobitex reportedly provided users with guidance on leveraging the Tron blockchain for anonymity, specifically to avoid sanctions detection.
Estimates suggest that billions of dollars have historically flowed through Nobitex from global platforms, including Binance.
A pattern of escalation
In January 2026, the Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on two UK-based platforms linked to the IRGC, marking the first direct actions against digital asset exchanges connected to Iran’s military apparatus. At the time, Nobitex was referenced in connection to those designations but was not itself targeted.
In June 2025, Nobitex suffered a hack that resulted in approximately $90 million stolen across Tron and EVM-compatible chains.
The Treasury’s action against Nobitex falls under the broad authority of Executive Order 13599, which encompasses all Iranian financial institutions.
What this means for investors
The immediate practical impact is straightforward: any US person or entity interacting with Nobitex, its wallets, or its associated addresses now faces potential criminal liability.
Exchanges that discover exposure to Nobitex-linked wallets may be forced to freeze accounts, file suspicious activity reports, or restrict services for users caught in the blast radius.
Nobitex controlling an estimated 70% of an entire country’s crypto volume makes it arguably the most systemically important exchange ever sanctioned by the US.