The US Treasury Department on Tuesday blacklisted several Iranian crypto exchanges, including its largest platform Nobitex, as part of its ongoing campaign against the Iranian government.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, as well as some of the leaders of those exchanges, were added to its global list of Specially Designated Nationals, prohibiting any U.S. entity or company and any person using the U.S. dollar financial system from providing financial services with the platforms.
The announcement came just days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that his department had seized approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrencies from Iranian exchanges and wallets since the start of the war against Iran.
“As Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corruption agenda, including avoiding sanctions and moving wealth out of the country. The current economic chaos in Iran is proof that President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign was a success,” Bessent said in a statement Tuesday.
The announcement linked Tuesday’s action to Nobitex’s alleged association with “Iran’s terrorist activities, sanctions evasion efforts, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-related transactions,” which included ransomware payments.
Nobitex also helped move assets out of Iran after the United States began bombing it earlier this year, the press release said.
The Treasury Department said the sanctions were part of its broader campaign against Iran.
“In addition, Treasury recently warned of the sanctions risk associated with complying with Iranian requests for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, such as ‘toll’ payments, including payments made via fiat currency, digital assets, offsets, informal exchanges or other in-kind payments such as nominal charitable donations, and the provision of sensitive vessel information,” the press release said.
Read more: US says it seizes around $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency as pressure campaign expands
