Treasury Sanctions Crypto Exchange Behind Iran's Bitcoin Tolls on Hormuz Ships

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated BitBank, an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange that it says processed Bitcoin payments linked to transit tolls charged for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. OFAC alleges the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority began routing the toll collections through BitBank in June, and that between June and July the exchange moved "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin" to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Treasury identified BitBank as controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, whom OFAC previously designated in January. Zanjani, sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzlement and later having that sentence commuted in 2024, has reappeared publicly backing ventures tied to the regime; Treasury said he has promoted BitBank on his social media since at least 2024. The latest action also targets Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, the developer of BitBank's software and a subsidiary of the already-designated Dot One Value Creation Group, along with three Dot One executives: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari. All five designations were made under Executive Order 13902, which the administration expanded in August to cover operators in Iran's digital asset sector. The designations are part of Operation Economic Outcast, a Treasury campaign announced in late August intended to sever economic channels supporting the Iranian regime, and carried out with cooperation from the EU, the UK and Gulf partners, the department said. U.S. assets belonging to the designated parties are blocked, entities they own majority stakes in are subject to blocking, and non-U.S. firms that transact with them face the risk of secondary sanctions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was quoted saying that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies "are not beyond OFAC's reach."