The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Nobitex, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Iran, and three other Tehran-based digital-asset platforms — Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex — to its Specially Designated Nationals list on Tuesday, naming them as the rails the Iranian regime, its central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have used to move funds around Western sanctions.

OFAC’s press release said Nobitex processed more than 50% of all Iranian digital-asset inflows in 2025, Wallex took 12% and Bitpin 10%. Ramzinex, founded in 2018, has processed more than $2.45 billion in transactions, including flows tied to the IRGC and a state-backed Iranian financial institution.

Treasury also designated Nobitex chairman, co-founder and former chief executive Amir Hossein Rad, current chief executive Seyed Ali Khoee and two co-founders — Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali and Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali — whom it identified as members of the Kharrazi family, an inner-circle dynasty in the Islamic Republic.

The designation is the first time OFAC has named an Iran-incorporated digital-asset exchange directly to the SDN list — Iranian platforms had until now been treated as blocked by program rather than by individual listing — and the first entity-level escalation of the Trump administration’s Economic Fury campaign into the crypto rails themselves. Tuesday’s action puts a compliance perimeter around the four exchanges that every U.S. person, every dollar-clearing bank and every foreign financial institution touching their flows now has to enforce.

What Treasury Says the Exchanges Did

Treasury said Nobitex helped the Central Bank of Iran access “hundreds of millions of dollars” in stablecoins used to defend the plummeting rial, while letting regime insiders reach international exchanges and evade sanctions across multiple jurisdictions. The release tied the exchange to IRGC-affiliated ransomware operators and said it “played a role in protecting and moving assets and funds out of Iran to shield regime wealth despite internet blackouts” after U.S. combat operations began. Wallex and Bitpin were each cited for facilitating IRGC-linked transactions, with Bitpin’s volume running into “millions of dollars.”

The action follows a Reuters investigation published May 1 that traced how Nobitex had become a central node in a parallel financial system for the Iranian central bank and the IRGC. Nobitex told Reuters in April it was a “private and independent business” with no affiliation to the central bank, the IRGC or any state institution. Treasury’s release directly contradicts that defense.

Bessent’s Framing

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an emailed statement that “while Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country.” Bessent added that “Treasury will continue to follow the money in support of Economic Fury, whether it is through the banking system or through digital assets, to prevent the regime from developing a nuclear weapon.”

The framing extends a $1 billion running total Bessent disclosed Friday at the Reagan National Economic Forum for cumulative Iran-linked crypto seizures under Operation Economic Fury. That figure ran ahead of any named exchange-level action; Tuesday’s designations are the first time Treasury has put specific company names and individuals behind the campaign’s digital-asset leg.