The United States on Thursday sanctioned Iran’s Bit Bank cryptocurrency platform, which is controlled by sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani, accusing it of processing payments for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Treasury Department said China’s imports of Iranian oil had fallen by 75%.
Targeting Bit Bank
The U.S. Treasury Department said Bit Bank had transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, describing it as a key component of Iran’s digital-asset infrastructure for circumventing sanctions.
The department said the platform was used to transfer funds paid to the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which Iran had recently established.
Targeting financing and trade networks
The U.S. Treasury Department said it was continuing to cut off the remaining economic lifelines of the Iranian regime, adding that it had identified the networks, intermediaries and financial channels used by Iran and was targeting Tehran’s illicit sources of financing. It said numerous entities had cut off Iran-linked individuals’ access to the financial system.
The department said the designation was part of the “economic exclusion operation,” aimed at isolating Iran economically and disrupting its global financial, trade and logistics networks. The strategy covers illicit trade in Iranian oil, financial intermediaries, currency-exchange offices, shipping and aviation companies, and front companies.
The sanctions also covered Pishtaz Simorgh E-Commerce, the software development company behind Bit Bank, as well as three of Zanjani’s associates: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mehdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heydari.
Background on Babak Zanjani
Zanjani was a key figure in Iran’s sanctions-evasion networks. Iranian authorities sentenced him to death in 2016 on embezzlement charges before commuting his sentence in 2024. The following year, he re-emerged as a supporter of the Iranian government’s economic projects.
