U.S. Treasury Targets Iran's Crypto Sector as Sanctions Tool

The U.S. Treasury has expanded its Iran sanctions campaign to include the country's digital-asset sector, labeling cryptocurrency as a 'tool of choice' for Tehran and its networks to evade sanctions and move oil revenues.

Dubbed 'Operation Economic Outcast,' the goal is to sever the economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) through a sustained and systematic campaign to close every financial resource that supports the leading state sponsor of terror.

Treasury warns that any entity facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on behalf of Iran risks being cut off from the U.S. financial system, with secondary sanctions exposure expanded for those continuing to do business with the Iranian regime.

The Treasury has mapped networks, facilitators, and financial channels used by Iran to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terror, citing UAE-based broker Ivan Obukhov as processing more than $100 million in cryptocurrency payments since 2023 to facilitate oil sales on behalf of the IRGC-Qods Force.