The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned two cryptocurrency exchanges—Shelbit Exchange and Aban Tether—accusing them of laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other previously sanctioned Iranian entities.

OFAC announced the designations on August 7, 2026, as part of its broader "Economic Fury" campaign targeting Iran's shadow-banking and digital-asset networks. A simultaneous action was taken against Iran's traditional shadow-banking infrastructure. The dual-track approach reflects how Tehran has layered cryptocurrency on top of decades-old informal value-transfer systems after years of exclusion from SWIFT and mainstream correspondent banking.

"The Iranian regime's reliance on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "We will continue to increase the economic pressure. Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial…"

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 7, 2026

The first designated exchange, Shelbit, was operated by Siavash Kayvanpour through his Georgia-registered firm SHPS Shelbit. Kayvanpour is Iran-born, holds citizenship in Dominica and Afghanistan, and ran a multi-country network spanning the UAE and Georgia. According to Treasury, wallets linked to the Iranian armed forces sent over $1 million in cryptocurrency to Shelbit, which in turn sent more than $2 million back to Iranian wallets and an additional $2 million to Nobitex—Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, previously sanctioned for terrorist financing.

Kayvanpour also controlled Poland-based Shelbit Technologies and UAE-based Crypto Home and NFT Home DMCC, all of which were designated alongside Shelbit Exchange. The spread of corporate registrations across jurisdictions with varying levels of crypto oversight illustrates a structural challenge for sanctions enforcement: designating individual entities does not inherently prevent operators from reconstituting under new names and jurisdictions.

Treasury further alleges that Shelbit laundered tens of millions of dollars from a Persian-language online gambling network. The UAE's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) took enforcement action against Shelbit General Trading in January 2025 and again in July 2026, but the exchange continued operating.

The second sanctioned platform, Aban Tether, is based in Iran and processed millions of dollars in transactions with previously designated Iranian exchanges including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. The name references Tether (USDT), the dollar-pegged stablecoin that has become the dominant medium of exchange in Iran's domestic crypto market precisely because it provides dollar exposure without access to U.S. banks.

Both exchanges were designated under U.S. authorities targeting Iran's financial sector and its support for terrorism. The designations place Shelbit Exchange, Aban Tether, and the named individuals on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial system. Any property subject to U.S. jurisdiction is frozen, and foreign firms that continue doing business with the designated entities risk secondary sanctions.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $15 million for information that disrupts the financial mechanisms of the IRGC and Iran's military.

The actions are part of a sustained U.S. effort against Iran's use of cryptocurrency. In May 2026, the U.S. froze $131 million in Iran-linked crypto assets. According to Secretary Bessent, approximately $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency has been seized since the Economic Fury campaign began. The escalating scale of those figures signals that Treasury's blockchain-tracing capabilities and partnerships with exchanges have matured, though the continued emergence of new laundering conduits suggests the cat-and-mouse dynamic is far from resolved.

As of August 7, 2026, Shelbit Exchange, Aban Tether, and all named individuals remain on the SDN List with their U.S.-touching assets blocked.