$61M Crypto Seized as US Targets Iranian Oil Sales

The U.S. government has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize over $61 million in cryptocurrency that it claims is linked to Iran's illicit oil sales. The funds were allegedly laundered through a network of Chinese cryptocurrency intermediaries, who used trading accounts at Binance to process the proceeds from black-market oil sales.

According to the filing, Tehran leveraged this network to launder over $1.5 billion in oil proceeds, which was then used to support Iran's government and military arms, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The complaint names two Chinese companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, alleging they provided fiat-to-crypto on-ramp services and worked with related entities to route the money to Iran. Binance has stated that it has zero tolerance for sanctions violations or illicit activity and did not permit any transactions with sanctioned individuals.

The U.S. government is seeking to forfeit the seized cryptocurrency, which it claims would have been used to promote hostile military action and terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies.