Signal US Treasury sanctions Iranian crypto exchange BitBank over IRGC funding, Hormuz payments

Summary

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank, controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, as part of Operation Economic Outcast. The Treasury said BitBank had routed hundreds of millions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including payments for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz processed through Iran's newly established Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority. BitBank's developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, and three Zanjani associates were designated the same day. Zanjani had earlier been sentenced to death in Iran for embezzling funds from the National Iranian Oil Company, a sentence commuted in 2024. He subsequently resurfaced as a backer of regime-linked economic projects.