The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Iranian cryptocurrency platforms Shelbit and Aban Tether, accusing them of helping move funds for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, sanctioned exchanges and a large online gambling network. The action extends Washington’s pressure campaign from Iran’s biggest crypto venues to platforms that Treasury says connected illicit domestic activity with overseas financial infrastructure.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated Shelbit operator Siavash Kayvanpour alongside companies he owns or controls in Georgia, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. The sanctions block any property or interests in property within U.S. jurisdiction and generally prohibit U.S. persons from dealing with the named entities and individual.
Treasury said wallets associated with the IRGC transferred more than $1 million in cryptocurrency to Shelbit and received more than $2 million from the platform. It also alleged that wallets tied to Kayvanpour sent more than $2 million to Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange and an entity OFAC sanctioned in June.
Aban Tether was separately designated for allegedly processing millions of dollars in transactions involving Nobitex and other sanctioned Iranian platforms, including Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex. OFAC said Nobitex accounted for more than half of all cryptocurrency inflows into Iran during 2025, placing the exchange at the center of Washington’s effort to restrict Iran-linked digital-asset activity.
Shelbit faces allegations over gambling proceeds
Treasury’s allegations against Shelbit extend beyond transfers involving sanctioned exchanges. OFAC said the platform provided services to a network of more than 2,000 gambling websites promoted by two Iranian influencers. The department alleged that the network laundered tens of millions of dollars through cryptocurrency.
The designation places Shelbit at the intersection of several enforcement priorities: Iranian sanctions evasion, financing tied to the IRGC, online gambling proceeds and cross-border crypto transfers. Rather than focusing solely on direct links between wallets and sanctioned actors, the case targets the service providers that can turn a large domestic customer base into access to foreign counterparties and stablecoin liquidity.
A Reuters investigation published a week before the Treasury action reported that Shelbit had processed at least $4 billion during the previous two years through a network involving Iranian gambling websites, the Iranian central bank and entities linked to the IRGC. Reuters also reported that wallets linked to Shelbit transferred at least $676 million to Binance during that period.
According to Reuters, about $540 million of that amount moved after Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA, fined Shelbit in January 2025 for operating without a license. VARA subsequently issued another enforcement action in July and ordered the platform to halt unlicensed activity.
Binance disputed the Reuters estimate of $540 million, saying it had investigated, frozen and reported accounts linked to Shelbit users to relevant authorities. The exchange’s response illustrates a recurring compliance problem for major trading platforms: blockchain transfers may be visible publicly, but identifying the people and businesses controlling the addresses can require customer records, transaction monitoring and cooperation with enforcement agencies.
A growing focus on crypto intermediaries
The latest designations build on OFAC’s June sanctions against Nobitex, which Treasury said had enabled transactions for IRGC-linked actors and other designated groups. The new action suggests U.S. authorities are following the flow of funds beyond a single exchange and into the smaller platforms, operators and corporate structures that may serve as bridges between sanctioned Iranian users and international crypto markets.
Kayvanpour’s companies in Georgia, Poland and the UAE are especially relevant in that context. Those jurisdictions can offer access to corporate services, payment channels or commercial relationships outside Iran. By designating entities controlled by one exchange operator across several countries, OFAC is seeking to limit the ability to replace an Iranian-facing platform with an affiliated offshore business.
The Treasury action was issued under the Trump administration’s “Economic Fury” campaign, which targets Iranian financial networks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has framed the effort as a way to constrict revenue and payment channels used by the Iranian government and sanctioned security organizations.
The U.S. government has also combined sanctions with asset seizures and intelligence incentives. In May 2026, U.S. authorities announced they had seized nearly $500 million in digital assets that they said were headed toward Iran. The State Department offers rewards of up to $15 million for information that disrupts financial networks connected to Iranian illicit activity.
Compliance risks extend beyond named platforms
For crypto firms, the enforcement action increases the urgency of screening direct and indirect exposure to designated Iranian services. A transaction may not originate from a wallet publicly labelled as belonging to the IRGC or a sanctioned exchange, yet it can still involve addresses linked through deposit and withdrawal patterns to a platform such as Shelbit or Aban Tether.
Sanctions screening therefore increasingly relies on blockchain analytics as well as conventional customer due diligence. Firms handling stablecoin transfers, over-the-counter trades, payment services and cross-chain transactions face particular exposure because these channels can move funds between platforms without a conventional bank intermediary.
Individual traders also face practical risks when receiving funds from unfamiliar wallets or using lightly regulated offshore services. Treasury’s designations do not establish that every customer of a sanctioned platform engaged in illicit activity, but they sharply raise the compliance consequences for counterparties that continue to transact with the named entities after their designation.
The Shelbit and Aban Tether sanctions show how U.S. enforcement is turning toward the connective tissue of Iran’s crypto economy: exchanges, gambling networks, foreign corporate affiliates and the wallet infrastructure that links them. That approach could make it harder for Iranian platforms to retain access to global liquidity even when they operate outside the most visible sanctioned venues.
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