The U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange and a web of associated front companies accused of helping Iran's government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps move billions of dollars in digital assets around the world while dodging sanctions. The exchange, Shelbit, allegedly ran its unlicensed operation out of an office above a budget hotel in Dubai's Deira district even as more than $4 billion in cryptocurrency flowed through it since May 2024.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against several cryptocurrency exchanges and business entities it says were involved in moving funds for the Iranian government and the IRGC, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The action, first reported by Tampa Free Press, names Crypto Home DMCC, NFT Home DMCC, Shelbit General Trading LLC, Shelbit Technologies Ltd, and SHPS Shelbit as sanctioned entities. According to Iran International, the more than $4 billion that moved through Shelbit since May 2024 formed part of a sanctions-evasion hub connecting Iran's central bank, IRGC-linked entities, and over 2,000 Farsi-language online gambling websites.
A Georgia-Based Exchange With Iranian-Born Leadership
Treasury's enforcement action names Siavash Kayvanpour as the head of a multijurisdictional network supporting the scheme, per the government filing cited by Tampa Free Press. Kayvanpour, who holds Iranian-born nationality along with citizenship in Dominica and Afghanistan, allegedly operated the Georgia-based Shelbit exchange through SHPS Shelbit. He was designated under Executive Order 13224 for providing support to the IRGC and to Nobitex, a previously designated Iranian exchange. Blockchain tracing cited by Iran International found that Shelbit processed at least $125 million linked directly to Iran's Central Bank and received more than $20 million from Iranian bitcoin-mining operations, which Iran legalized in 2019 specifically to generate foreign exchange.
Investigators also traced smaller but direct transfers connecting Shelbit to IRGC wallets. IRGC-linked wallet addresses sent over $1 million in digital assets to Shelbit exchange addresses, while more than $2 million in digital assets flowed from Shelbit exchange addresses back to IRGC-linked wallets, according to the Treasury action detailed by Tampa Free Press. Separately, wallets tied to Kayvanpour personally or under his control transferred over $2 million to Nobitex.
Gambling Sites Run by Influencers Fed the Pipeline
Online gambling is strictly illegal inside Iran, yet the regime co-opted a Persian-language gambling network to move money abroad, per Iran International. Shelbit provided financial services to that gambling network, which was operated by two Iranian influencers living abroad, Sasha Sobhani in Madrid and Pooyan Mokhtari in Hong Kong, as reported by The Times of India. Both influencers were convicted of illegal gambling in Iran in 2023 alongside Kayvanpour, and revenue from the gambling channels benefited the IRGC, according to Tampa Free Press. Their platforms reportedly maintained access to Iran's central bank-regulated online payment system even as they operated abroad.
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority had already ordered Shelbit to halt all unlicensed activities in late July, citing acute risks involving money laundering, terrorism financing, and illicit cross-border transfers, Iran International reported. The UAE regulator had issued an earlier enforcement action against Shelbit General Trading in January 2025 and against Crypto Home that same month, according to Tampa Free Press. But regulatory pressure did not immediately choke off the flow of funds: blockchain tracing reviewed by The Block showed Shelbit transferred at least $676 million in cryptocurrency to wallets on Binance between May 2024 and July 2026, with roughly $540 million of that moving only after the January 2025 fine. Binance previously agreed to a $4.3 billion federal settlement in 2023 over anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance violations, the outlet noted.
Second Exchange, Aban Tether, Also Blacklisted
OFAC also designated Aban Tether under Executive Order 13902 for operating within the Iranian financial sector, according to Tampa Free Press. The exchange transacted with Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, and processed millions of dollars in transactions with those previously sanctioned Iranian platforms. Treasury's action against Shelbit and Aban Tether follows its June 2, 2026 designation of Nobitex itself, which the department said processed over 50% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025 and facilitated stablecoin access that helped support the rial.
The sanctions announced Friday were executed under National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 as part of Operation Economic Fury, a maximum-pressure policy launched in April 2026 that pairs military containment with aggressive disruption of Iran's financial networks, according to the Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the reliance shown by Iran's regime on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working, and he said the department will continue to increase economic pressure on illicit financial networks, according to Tampa Free Press. Bessent had separately disclosed in late May that federal authorities had directly seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency assets from digital wallets under the same operation, as reported by CoinGeek.
Steep Legal Exposure for Anyone Still Doing Business
The Treasury action was coordinated with the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation division, per Tampa Free Press, and the State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to disruption of IRGC financial mechanisms. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from conducting transactions with the designated individuals or entities, and any U.S. property or assets owned by those parties are now blocked. Financial institutions and foreign persons that continue engaging with the designated entities face potential secondary sanctions or enforcement penalties.
Under OFAC compliance guidance in FAQ 1250 and FAQ 1257, foreign financial institutions and digital asset platforms risk losing access to U.S. correspondent banking entirely if they process transactions for designated Iranian exchanges, according to the Treasury Department. Willful violations of U.S. economic sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act carry criminal penalties of up to 20 years in federal prison per violation, along with civil fines and mandatory property freezing under OFAC's 50 Percent Rule, which automatically blocks any entity that is 50% or more owned by a designated person.
The Shelbit and Aban Tether designations arrive roughly a month after federal charges against an Oahu resident accused of routing cryptocurrency through Coinbase to sanctioned Iranian exchanges including Nobitex, Wallex, and AbanTether. That case followed Treasury advisories from earlier this year instructing domestic banks to flag suspected cash-smuggling and cryptocurrency networks tied to Iranian sanctions evasion, part of a widening federal effort to trace how Tehran's financial apparatus reaches everyday digital platforms.
