US sanctions Iranian crypto exchange BitBank over Hormuz payments
The US government says the exchange was used to channel payments from an Iranian maritime-insurance scheme to the regime.
WASHINGTON — The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange as part of an economic campaign against the regime and its financial enablers.
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated BitBank, which it described as a priority digital assets venture controlled by the previously sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani. Also sanctioned on Thursday were BitBank’s developer and three associates of Zanjani.
According to OFAC, Iran’s digital maritime-insurance scheme known as Hormuz Safe has used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the latest sanctions “make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach.”
Since launching Operation Economic Outcast last month, the Treasury Department has levied sanctions on financial institutions in Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey with alleged ties to Iran. It has yet to blacklist any banks in China, Iran’s largest trading partner and purchaser of its oil.
Sanctions could jeopardize a fragile detente ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington on Sept. 24. Before their summit, Bessent is scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend.
The new measures come less than a week before Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, are set to attend the UN General Assembly in New York. A US State Department spokesperson said Thursday the delegation from Tehran will face travel restrictions and be prohibited from purchasing luxury goods.
Trump, who is expected to meet with regional leaders on the sidelines of the UN summit, told Axios on Thursday that he is deciding whether to "annihilate" Iran or not.