US Slams Shut Iranian Cryptocurrency Lifeline with New Sanctions

The US Treasury Department has imposed new sanctions on several companies and individuals accused of helping Iran secretly move hundreds of millions of dollars through the international financial system.

The targets include two digital-asset exchanges, Shelbit Exchange and Aban Tether, as well as Siavash Kayvanpour, described as the network's ringleader. Kayvanpour has lived in the UAE and runs a multinational web of companies that supports illicit cryptocurrency activity, according to the Treasury Department.

Treasury alleges that cryptocurrency accounts belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent over $1 million in digital assets to Shelbit, which then moved several million dollars more to Guard-linked accounts and to Nobitex, a previously sanctioned Iranian exchange. Aban Tether is accused of processing millions of dollars in transactions involving other blacklisted Iranian platforms.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that purchases of Iranian oil by small independent Chinese refiners remain the main economic lifeline for the Iranian government, which he called the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. He vowed to continue dismantling networks keeping the government afloat through Operation Economic Fury.