US Targets Bitcoin Exchange at the Center of Iran's Hormuz Shipping Tolls

The U.S. Treasury has imposed sanctions on BitBank, an Iranian crypto exchange it says handled the Bitcoin payments shipping companies made for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the exchange has served as the conduit since June for the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, the body that charges vessels in Bitcoin for transit rights. The toll scheme itself was designated in July. Between June and July, the agency said, BitBank moved "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin" to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The measure, part of a campaign Treasury has branded Operation Economic Outcast, also covers the exchange's software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, and three executives of that firm's parent, Dot One Value Creation Group: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari. Pishtaz Simorgh is a subsidiary of the already-designated Dot One group.

BitBank is controlled by Babak Zanjani, an Iranian financier OFAC sanctioned in January. Zanjani was sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 over embezzlement from the National Iranian Oil Company; the sentence was commuted in 2024, and he resurfaced last year as a backer of regime-linked ventures. Treasury said he has promoted BitBank on his social media accounts since at least 2024.

Treasury described Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein as tied to most of Zanjani's sanctions-evasion work, including oil exports, and said he has brokered digital asset deals whose proceeds reached the IRGC.

All five designations were made under Executive Order 13902, which the administration broadened in August to reach anyone operating in Iran's digital asset sector. Treasury has used that authority since then to dismantle the network, targeting exchanges it says laundered Iranian funds.

Washington's penalties block any U.S. assets the five hold, along with any entities in which they own a stake of 50% or more. Companies outside the U.S. that do business with them face exposure to secondary sanctions.

"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."

The Bessent-announced operation began August 24 and has been dubbed "Economic D-Day". Its stated goal, per Treasury, is to cut off Iran's remaining economic lifelines in coordination with the EU, the UK and Gulf partners.

Markets suggest no easing is on the horizon. According to Decrypt, betting on Myriad, a prediction market run by its parent company Dastan, puts the odds of Washington ending its naval blockade of Iranian shipping by September 30 at 10%, down 30 points. Even by December 31, the chance stands at only 60%.