The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has widened its crackdown on Iran’s crypto finance network by sanctioning two more digital asset exchanges and the alleged ringleader behind a web of front companies.
The action announced on August 7 targets the Dubai-based Shelbit Exchange, the Iran-based Aban Tether, and Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, accused of moving funds for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other regime-linked actors.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department will keep going after these networks in “dollars, rials, or crypto,” adding that Washington intends to dismantle the financial pipelines keeping the Iranian regime afloat. OFAC developed the action jointly with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit, and the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $15 million for information that disrupts IRGC financing channels.
Kayvanpour’s Multi-Jurisdiction Corporate Web
At the center of the case sits Siavash Kayvanpour, an Iran-born businessman who also holds citizenship in Dominica and Afghanistan and has been based in the United Arab Emirates. Through his Republic of Georgia-registered company SHPS Shelbit, he operated the Shelbit Exchange, which, according to OFAC, received more than $1 million in digital assets from IRGC-linked wallets and sent over $2 million back to IRGC addresses.
Kayvanpour also allegedly transferred more than $2 million in crypto to Nobitex, the Iranian exchange that the Treasury blacklisted in June as part of the broader Economic Fury campaign. His extended footprint includes UAE-registered Shelbit General Trading LLC, which trades commercially as Shelbit Exchange, Poland-based Shelbit Technologies, and two Dubai free zone entities named Crypto Home DMCC and NFT Home DMCC.
Notably, the UAE’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) had already taken enforcement action against Shelbit General Trading in January 2025 and July 2026, and against Crypto Home in early 2025. Despite those measures, the entities continued to operate, prompting the US to move on them directly.
Gambling Ring Powered the Laundering Pipeline
OFAC alleges that Shelbit served as the payments backbone for a large Persian-language online gambling network run by a pair of Iranian influencers who live abroad in luxury. Tens of millions of dollars in gambling proceeds were reportedly cycled through Shelbit before being redirected to regime-connected wallets.
The two influencers were convicted of illegal gambling in Iran in 2023, yet their websites still reportedly plug into the country’s tightly regulated online payments infrastructure overseen by the Central Bank of Iran, a fact that OFAC pointed to as evidence of official complicity.
Aban Tether Added Under the Iran Financial Sector Order
The second exchange sanctioned, Aban Tether, is based inside Iran and was designated under Executive Order 13902 for operating in the country’s financial sector. OFAC says it processed millions of dollars in transactions tied to previously sanctioned Iranian platforms, including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex.
The latest round follows a string of moves this year targeting Iran’s digital asset infrastructure. In January, the Treasury sanctioned Zedcex and Zedxion, the first exchanges hit under its Iran-specific financial sanctions program. In June, it blacklisted Nobitex and three peers, and last month it added four wallets tied to Iran’s central bank, after which Tether froze roughly $131 million in USDT held in those addresses. Cumulatively, US authorities have seized or frozen close to $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto since the enforcement drive began.
Reuters Investigation and War-Time Backdrop
The designations land shortly after a Reuters investigation on July 31 identified Shelbit as a central node in a reported $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion scheme. The report noted that Shelbit’s website had been offline for months but reactivated the day after the investigation was published, with the company denying any knowing role in money laundering, sanctions evasion, or IRGC-linked activity.
The timing also aligns with heightened US pressure on Tehran following recent maritime incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, and it comes in the same week that the Treasury announced parallel actions against Iran’s shadow banking networks and offshore currency houses.
Implications for Exchanges and Stablecoin Issuers
Under OFAC rules, all property and interests of the sanctioned parties within US jurisdiction are frozen, and any entity 50 percent or more owned by them is automatically covered. Non-US persons that continue processing flows for the listed entities face secondary sanctions risk, and OFAC can pursue civil penalties on a strict liability basis.
For exchanges, custodians, over-the-counter desks, and stablecoin issuers, the practical takeaway is a heavier compliance burden around Iran-nexus wallets and Persian-language gambling flows. It also strengthens the argument for broader chain analytics adoption, given that OFAC’s designation packages continue to lean on on-chain evidence to establish links between shell companies, exchanges, and sanctioned Iranian institutions.
Also Read: Russian FSB Targets Nine Alleged Crypto Laundering Operations
