US Treasury’s OFAC sanctions Shelbit and Aban Tether over Iran-linked crypto flows

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned two digital asset exchanges it says the Iranian regime uses to launder billions of dollars and support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). For high-risk PSPs, the useful part is simple: OFAC is treating crypto exchanges, wallets, and the people behind them as a connected sanctions-evasion stack, not as isolated accounts.

1. In a Friday notice, OFAC said it sanctioned crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether for “facilitating illicit cryptocurrency activity and sanctions evasion,” with the proceeds used to support Iran’s IRGC. The agency also sanctioned Iranian national Siavash Kayvanpour, plus crypto wallets and companies tied to him, including one that operates Shelbit.
2. According to the US Treasury, IRGC-controlled wallets sent more than $1 million in crypto to addresses tied to Shelbit. Wallets linked to Kayvanpour sent $2 million in digital assets to Nobitex, an Iranian exchange added to the US sanctions list in June.
3. The Treasury also said Shelbit facilitated the transfer of $2 million in crypto to IRGC-controlled wallets. That is the sort of flow that puts an exchange, its operators, and adjacent infrastructure straight into OFAC’s crosshairs.
4. These measures come alongside a wider US campaign against Iran’s financial network during the military conflict between the two countries. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat.”
5. OFAC has been widening the net through 2025: the department designated digital asset exchanges Zedcex and Zedxio in January and froze $131 million in wallets linked to Iran in June. For PSPs and acquirers, the pattern matters more than the headline — wallets, exchanges, and related entities are being pulled into sanctions actions together.