US Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Largest Digital Asset Platforms Under Operation Economic Fury

The US has sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, alongside three other platforms for facilitating sanctions evasion and terror financing, the US Treasury Department reported on June 3.

The restrictions are part of the US President Donald Trump administration’s “Economic Fury” campaign targeting the Iranian regime’s alternative financial networks.

Nobitex processed over 50 percent of all digital asset inflows into Iran in 2025. According to the Treasury, the platform regularly handled transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including wallets linked to state-affiliated ransomware actors.

The exchange also allowed the Central Bank of Iran to access stablecoins to artificially prop up the crashing Iranian rial, while helping regime insiders move wealth out of the country during state-enforced internet blackouts. The restrictions also freeze the assets of Nobitex’s top leadership, including co-founder Amir Hossein Rad and current CEO Seyed Ali Khoee, the Treasury stated.

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Three other major Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges were blacklisted in the same enforcement wave:

• Wallex: Iran’s second-largest exchange by volume, which processed 12 percent of the country’s crypto inflows in 2025 and routinely moved funds for the IRGC.

• Bitpin: A platform capturing 10 percent of domestic inflows, utilizing an investor network directly tied to US sanctions evasion schemes.

• Ramzinex: A Tehran-based exchange that has processed over $2.45 billion in transactions involving government-backed financial institutions and the IRGC.

The designations freeze all US-based property and assets linked to these platforms and their executives. Concurrently, the State Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information that disrupts the IRGC’s financial networks.

This enforcement action follows a total suspension of indirect diplomatic communication between Tehran and Washington. Iran had previously halted all intermediary messaging with the United States to protest Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Gaza, declaring a ceasefire a strict precondition for any future dialogue.

Alongside the diplomatic freeze, Iranian authorities warned of retaliatory military measures, including plans to block the Strait of Hormuz—a primary global maritime chokepoint handling roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption. This escalation aligns with the Treasury’s recent efforts to counter Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) extortion schemes targeting international commercial vessels navigating the corridor.

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