The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned BitBank, an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange accused of helping facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), itself a sanctioned entity under U.S. law.

The designations extend a deepening U.S. campaign against the digital asset infrastructure that Washington says Iranian actors rely on to move funds around international sanctions.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated BitBank and its developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, alongside three executives linked to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani. The action was carried out under the Trump administration's "Operation Economic Outcast," an initiative targeting Iran's sanctions-evasion networks.

Treasury said Zanjani used BitBank between June and July 2026 to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC. The department added that the platform had been in use since at least 2024 and had been promoted by Zanjani on social media.

"Today's designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you."

The action also targeted three of Zanjani's associates — Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari — whom the department described as key components of the network that moved funds through the exchange.

Treasury said BitBank's software was developed by Pishtaz Simorgh, a subsidiary of Dot One Value Creation Group, an entity already designated by OFAC. The department has previously sanctioned other Zanjani-linked digital asset entities and facilitators, taking similar actions in January and July 2026.

The latest move comes as Washington broadens its use of sanctions against cryptocurrency infrastructure linked to Iran. Treasury said its authorities give the department wider powers to disrupt the Iranian regime's use of digital assets for sanctions evasion, and it warned that international companies and individuals who facilitate such activity could also face sanctions exposure. For cryptocurrency businesses operating internationally, that warning effectively extends the compliance perimeter beyond U.S. borders, putting any platform or service provider that touched the designated entities on notice that facilitation itself can carry sanctions consequences.

Under the designations, all property and interests in property belonging to the designated parties that are in the United States, or that come under the control of U.S. persons, are blocked. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from conducting transactions involving the designated entities and individuals without authorization from OFAC. In practice, that places an immediate screening and blocking obligation on exchanges and financial platforms handling assets connected to the designated parties.

The action highlights a growing enforcement reality for cryptocurrency markets. Sanctions authorities are increasingly targeting not only individual wallets and actors, but also the exchanges, software developers, and financial infrastructure that enable sanctioned parties to move digital assets across borders — a shift that places service providers and their vendors squarely within the reach of U.S. sanctions enforcement. With comparable Zanjani-linked actions already taken in January and July 2026, and Treasury explicitly cautioning facilitators about exposure, further designations across the network — and the response of any foreign firms that transacted with BitBank — are the key developments to watch next.