The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, on June 2, 2026, accusing it of helping the Iranian government and blacklisted entities avoid Western sanctions [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Nobitex handled over half of Iran's digital asset inflows in 2025, processing roughly $5 billion in transactions by March 2026, out of a $7.8 billion national crypto market [3, 4, 5, 6].
Nobitex also facilitated crypto transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s central bank, enabling the regime to transfer and conceal assets abroad even amid internet blackouts after US combat operations began [1, 2, 4, 6]. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "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" [1]. He added, "The US Treasury will continue tracking the flow of funds to disrupt Iran’s illicit financial networks" [5].
The sanctions target Nobitex’s chairman and co-founder Amir Hossein Rad, CEO Seyed Ali Khoee, and two influential brothers from the powerful Kharrazi family, Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali and Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali, who control the company and maintain close ties to Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]. Reuters reported Nobitex’s founders concealed these elite connections by using family aliases when founding the exchange in 2018 [1, 6].
Nobitex had some 11 million users as of May 2026, more than 10% of Iran’s population, and processed about 70% of domestic crypto transactions [6]. The US also sanctioned three other Iranian crypto exchanges on June 2: Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex [3, 4, 6].
A major hack last June by an Israeli-linked group known as "Predatory Sparrow" resulted in the theft of $48 million in crypto from Nobitex, aimed at disrupting Iran’s terror financing [6]. Secretary Bessent noted the current economic turmoil in Iran shows the effectiveness of past maximum pressure campaigns [6].
The US Treasury’s actions fall under a broader "Economic Fury" strategy to cut off Iran from illicit finance sources and global capital markets [4, 5, 6]. The sanctions mark a key step in ongoing efforts to clamp down on Iran’s use of emerging digital currencies for evading sanctions and funding state-linked entities.
