WSJ: Iran-linked wallets moved $3.84 billion through CoinEx since 2019

WSJ, citing TRM Labs, says Iran-linked crypto wallets routed more than $3.84 billion through CoinEx since 2019, making the exchange a key hub in Iran’s crypto operations. For PSPs and exchanges, the point is not the headline number itself; it is the persistence of the flow, the concentration around a single venue, and the mix of hacked funds, local exchanges, and central-bank involvement.

1. TRM Labs tracked $2.7 billion of the $3.84 billion in transfers between CoinEx and Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange. The flows reportedly ran for years at roughly $1 million a day, with about 6.2 million separate transfers, which is the kind of volume pattern compliance teams tend to notice before anyone else does.
2. By 2024, CoinEx had become Nobitex’s largest external counterparty and the largest incoming channel for Iran’s crypto system, according to the report. CoinEx also transacted with more than 60 other Iranian crypto entities, including Wallex, Ramzinex, Bit Pin, Aban Tether, Excoino, Bit24, Ompfinex, Sarmayex, and Exir.
3. The wallets tied to Iranian structures were described as belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and receiving cryptocurrency obtained through hacking attacks. TRM Labs also traced $67 million that the Central Bank of Iran moved through CoinEx over the year starting in June 2025, in what researchers described as a money-laundering scheme.
4. CoinEx was founded in 2017 in Hong Kong by former Tencent engineer Haipo Yang. WSJ said it contacted him directly; he confirmed that Iranians actively use the exchange, denied any connection to the Iranian government, and said CoinEx began restricting access to the Iranian market this month by blocking users with IP addresses in Iran because of the market’s high risks.

For high-risk operators, this is a reminder that “crypto exposure” is not a single question. A venue can sit inside a long-running transfer network, serve as a bridge to domestic exchanges, and still end up with the usual compliance headache: sanctions screening, source-of-funds issues, and jurisdictional risk all hitting the same file at once.