The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions two cryptocurrency asset exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, accusing them of money laundering millions of USD for the IRGC; the U.S. has seized about 1 billion USD in cryptocurrency assets linked to Iran.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has just imposed sanctions on two cryptocurrency exchanges that the agency accuses of laundering millions of USD for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). One operator allegedly ran the network from Georgia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while the second platform is based in Iran.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced this measure on 8/7 as part of the “Economic Fury” campaign. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Iran’s reliance on crypto assets and underground banking networks is evidence that the campaign is working, while a separate measure implemented at the same time also targets Iran’s traditional underground banking network.

The Shebit network and transactions related to Iran’s armed forces

The central figure in the case is Siavash Kayvanpour, born in Iran, holding citizenship of Dominica and Afghanistan, who runs a network of operations across multiple countries from the UAE and Georgia. Through the Georgia-based company SHPS Shelbit, Kayvanpour operates the Shelbit Exchange platform.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, wallets linked to Iran’s armed forces transferred more than $1 million in crypto assets to Shelbit, while Shelbit transferred more than $2 million back to wallets in Iran, and also transferred an additional $2 million to Nobitex, an Iran-based exchange that had been sanctioned previously for links to terror financing. The agency also accused Shelbit of laundering tens of millions of dollars from a Persian-language online gambling network.

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) previously took enforcement action against Shelbit General Trading in January 2025 and again in July 2026, but according to the U.S. Treasury Department, the exchange continues to operate.

Kayvanpour also runs Shelbit Technologies based in Poland, along with Crypto Home and NFT Home DMCC based in the UAE, and all of these entities were brought under sanctions alongside Shelbit. A second exchange, Aban Tether, is alleged to have handled transactions worth millions of dollars with Iran-based platforms previously sanctioned by the U.S., including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.

Both Shelbit and Aban Tether have been designated for sanctions under authorities targeting Iran’s financial sector and the country’s terrorism-support activities, thereby placing these entities on the Specially Designated Citizens List and the Blocked Persons list—lists that remove individuals and organizations from the U.S. financial system.

All assets within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, while foreign companies that continue to transact with these parties risk facing secondary sanctions measures.

The U.S. State Department Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $15 million for information that could help disrupt IRGC financial mechanisms. This is part of a prolonged campaign targeting Iran’s growing dependence on crypto assets: in May alone, the U.S. froze $131 million in crypto assets linked to Iran, and according to Bessent, a total of about $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto assets have been seized since the campaign began.