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The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has determined that it has authority to sanction any person, not limited by geographic location, involved in Iran's cryptocurrency commerce.
The Iranian regime has increasingly turned to cryptocurrency in order to conduct sanctions evading transactions including support of IRGC affiliated entities and terrorist organizations, for financial gain.
Chainalysis reports Iran's total crypto ecosystem volume reached $7.78 billion in 2025 with IRGC-associated wallets raking in more than $3 billion in the fourth quarter of the year.
These five areas of Iranian business were specifically targeted in Operation Economic Outcast, described by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as an "economic D-Day": technology, gold, aviation, shipping and cryptocurrency.
Not every Iranian company involved in the digital asset industry will automatically be blacklisted. OFAC will be given the regulatory standing to determine on a case by case basis which entities to sanction to implement this new policy.
Since 2023, UAE-based entities have processed over $100 million in digital currency transactions for the purchase of Iranian oil and refined petroleum products to fund the IRGC. Two of Iran's largest digital currency exchanges — Shelbit and Aban Tether — have also been sanctioned by OFAC for enabling millions of dollars in transactions with entities already under US sanctions.
Tether had previously locked $131 million in accounts associated with Iran's central bank after they were flagged in a sanctions compliance report.
