The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned BitBank, an Iranian crypto exchange it says helped move hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
The designation, announced Thursday, adds another crypto platform to Washington’s growing list of Iranian exchanges targeted over alleged sanctions evasion and transfers involving sanctioned entities.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, also sanctioned BitBank’s software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, along with three associates of Iranian financier Babak Zanjani: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari.
According to the Treasury, BitBank was a “priority digital asset venture” controlled by Zanjani. OFAC had previously sanctioned Zanjani over an alleged network of companies involved in laundering money and helping Iran circumvent sanctions.
The agency says Zanjani used BitBank between June and July to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the IRGC. Treasury also alleged that the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has been using the exchange since June to move payments to the Iranian regime.
That puts BitBank at the intersection of two increasingly visible worlds: Iran’s efforts to use crypto infrastructure and Washington’s attempt to ensure those same networks remain within the reach of financial sanctions.
BitBank and the Bitcoin Route Through Hormuz
Hormuz Safe appears to be the formal entity behind a bitcoin-settled platform first reported by Iranian media in May. The service was promoted as providing coverage for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, emerging a few months after the U.S.-Iran conflict began.
Iran said at the time that it was targeting more than $10 billion in revenue from the platform.
The connection matters because the Strait of Hormuz is not simply another shipping corridor. In the reference material, its relevance comes through the platform’s stated purpose and its use of bitcoin as the settlement mechanism, linking maritime payments with digital-asset infrastructure.
Thursday’s action marks the latest U.S. move against Iranian crypto platforms. In June, OFAC sanctioned Nobitex, described as Iran’s largest crypto exchange, as well as Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex under the administration’s earlier “Economic Fury” campaign.
Treasury said Nobitex processed more than half of Iran’s digital asset inflows in 2025 and facilitated transactions involving the IRGC and other sanctioned entities.
OFAC expanded the campaign again in August, sanctioning the exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether. The newest designations come under a continuation of “Economic Fury” known as “Operation Economic Outcast,” a broader campaign launched on Aug. 24.
The Treasury’s message was blunt. “Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you.”
For BitBank, the result is more than another regulatory headline. The exchange has now been formally identified by the U.S. government as part of infrastructure it alleges was used to move bitcoin to a sanctioned Iranian military organization.
The Block reached out to OFAC for clarification and said it would update its reporting if additional information was provided.