The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned BitBank, the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange it says carried the Bitcoin that shipping companies paid for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

In its announcement, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank since June to pass on the payments it collects to the Iranian regime. That authority is the body charging vessels in Bitcoin for transit rights through the strategic waterway, a scheme Treasury designated in July. The strait is one of the world's busiest energy chokepoints, with a substantial share of globally traded oil transiting its narrow waters.

Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, OFAC designated what it described as key components of the Iranian regime's digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure.

Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated key components of the Iranian regime's digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure. Targets include BitBank, a priority digital assets…

— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) September 17, 2026

Between June and July, Treasury said, BitBank was used to move "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin" to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran's military that has long been under U.S. sanctions.

BitBank is controlled by Babak Zanjani, an Iranian financier OFAC designated in January. Sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzling from the National Iranian Oil Company, Zanjani had his sentence commuted in 2024 and resurfaced last year backing regime-linked ventures. Treasury said he has been advertising BitBank on his social media accounts since at least 2024.

Four More Designations

The action also covers Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, which built BitBank's software and operates as a subsidiary of the already-designated Dot One Value Creation Group, along with three Dot One executives: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari.

Treasury described Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein as involved in most of Zanjani's sanctions evasion, including oil exports, and said he has brokered digital asset transactions that ended up with the IRGC.

All five were designated under Executive Order 13902, first signed in 2020 and extended by the administration in August to cover anyone operating in Iran's digital asset sector. It is the same authority Treasury has used since then to work through the network, including the crypto exchanges it designated for laundering Iranian funds.

"Efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "If you support the Iranian regime, the Department the Treasury will sanction you."

The designations fall under Operation Economic Outcast, the campaign Bessent announced on August 24 and dubbed "Economic D-Day," which Treasury says is aimed at severing Iran's remaining economic lifelines with help from the EU, the UK, and Gulf partners.

U.S. assets belonging to the five designated parties are blocked, as are any entities they own half or more of, and non-U.S. firms dealing with them risk secondary sanctions, which can cut foreign companies off from the U.S. financial system.

Traders do not expect the pressure to lift soon. On Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt's parent company Dastan, the odds of Washington announcing an end to its naval blockade of Iranian shipping by September 30 have fallen to 10%, down 30 points. Even a December 31 deadline is only a 60% shot.