US Treasury Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank Over Bitcoin Transfers to IRGC

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated BitBank, an Iranian digital assets exchange controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, as part of Operation Economic Outcast on September 17, according to a Treasury press release.

The action also covers the exchange’s software developer and three Zanjani associates, and it directly targets the infrastructure the department says was used to move hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

A Bitcoin Pipeline to the IRGC OFAC said the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, an entity already under sanctions, has used BitBank since June to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime.

Between June and July of this year, Zanjani used the exchange to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC.