The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on two cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of laundering funds for the Iranian military

On August 7, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Shellbit Exchange and Avan Tether to its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), accusing them of laundering funds for entities linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other Iranian military organizations. This action was part of the Treasury Department's "Economic Fury" campaign and was announced in conjunction with separate, simultaneous actions targeting traditional shadow financial networks. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized that the Iranian regime's reliance on digital assets and shadow financial networks itself demonstrates the effectiveness of the campaign. A key figure in these sanctions is Seybash Kayanpour, an Iranian national with dual citizenship in the Dominican Republic and Afghanistan. He operates a multinational network based in the UAE and Georgia, and effectively controls Shellbit Exchange through the Georgian entity SHPS Shellbit. According to the Treasury Department's investigation, over $1 million in cryptocurrency was transferred from wallets linked to the Iranian military to Shellbit, which then sent over $2 million to wallets within Iran and an additional $2 million to Novitex, which is already subject to sanctions for allegedly supporting terrorism. In addition, Shellbit is also accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars originating from a Persian-language online gambling network. The UAE's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) took enforcement actions against Shellbit General Trading on two occasions, in January 2025 and July 2026, but the exchange continued its operations, according to the Treasury Department. Shellbit Technologies, a Polish entity associated with Kayanpour, as well as Crypto Home, a UAE entity, and NFT Home DMCC, were also added to the list of sanctioned entities. Avan Tether, the second entity sanctioned, is confirmed to have processed transactions worth millions of dollars with Iranian platforms already subject to sanctions, including Novitex, Wallex, Bitfin, and Ramfinex. With their inclusion on the SDN list, the assets of these entities connected to the United States are immediately frozen, and foreign companies that continue to transact with them face the risk of secondary sanctions. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program has announced that it will offer rewards of up to $15 million for information that contributes to disrupting the IRGC's financial mechanisms. This action is part of a sustained effort to pressure Iran's reliance on cryptocurrency, and Secretary Yellen stated that since the campaign's launch, approximately $1 billion in Iranian-linked cryptocurrency has been seized, with an additional $131 million frozen in May.