The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, opening a new named-target front in Washington’s pressure campaign while U.S.-Iran talks remain stuck on sanctions, Hormuz, and nuclear terms.
This is a fresh angle, not a repeat of the earlier crypto-seizure story. List25 covered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claim that Washington had seized Iranian-linked crypto assets on May 30. Tuesday’s move is different: it is a formal OFAC designation of Nobitex, three other Iranian exchanges, and senior company figures, with the U.S. directly tying the platforms to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and sanctions evasion.
The Treasury Department said Tuesday that OFAC designated Nobitex along with Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex under counterterrorism and Iran financial-sector authorities. Treasury described Nobitex as Iran’s largest digital asset exchange and said it processed more than 50 percent of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also reported that the sanctions hit Nobitex and three other digital exchanges, adding that the move landed amid uncertainty over negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The Associated Press, carried by The Washington Post, likewise reported that the Trump administration placed sanctions on Iran’s largest digital asset exchange and three others as part of its pressure campaign.
Why Nobitex matters
According to Treasury, Nobitex was not just a domestic crypto platform. OFAC said the exchange facilitated transactions linked to the IRGC, including activity associated with IRGC-affiliated ransomware actors, while helping regime insiders access international digital asset exchanges and evade sanctions across multiple jurisdictions.
Treasury also alleged that Nobitex helped Iran’s central bank access hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins to support the rial, and that the exchange played a role in protecting and moving assets out of Iran after U.S. combat operations began and internet blackouts complicated financial movement.
That makes the designation strategically important. The Iran crisis has already centered on oil exports, the Strait of Hormuz, frozen funds, and enriched uranium. Nobitex brings the digital-finance layer into the same pressure campaign, with Washington arguing that crypto rails have become part of Tehran’s wartime and sanctions-evasion infrastructure.
Treasury also named executives
OFAC also sanctioned Nobitex chairman, co-founder, and former CEO Amir Hossein Rad, along with other Nobitex leaders and officials. Treasury said Rad helped Nobitex reconstitute operations after a $90 million hack in June 2025, and it identified other co-founders and executives as part of the action.
The designations mean U.S.-linked property and interests in property belonging to the named entities and people are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally barred from dealing with them. Foreign actors can also face risk if they provide material support to sanctioned entities.
The timing is deliberate. Treasury framed the move as part of “Economic Fury” and the Trump administration’s maximum-pressure campaign. Bessent said the department would “follow the money” through both banking channels and digital assets to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
The Hormuz link is still there
The crypto action also intersects with the Strait of Hormuz fight. Treasury’s release pointed back to recent U.S. warnings that companies could face sanctions risk for complying with Iranian demands for passage through Hormuz, including so-called toll payments made through fiat currency, digital assets, offsets, swaps, or other in-kind arrangements.
That matters because U.S. officials are trying to separate two tracks at once. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers Tuesday that sanctions relief has not been offered simply in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to RFE/RL’s live coverage. At the same time, Treasury is tightening enforcement around the digital channels Iran might use to collect, move, or hide money while the blockade and talks continue.
The result is a broader pressure map. Ships, oil revenue, frozen funds, nuclear stockpiles, and crypto exchanges are now part of the same negotiation environment. For Tehran, the sanctions make one of its most important digital finance platforms harder to use internationally. For Washington, the move signals that any eventual Iran deal would not only have to address weapons and waterways, but also the financial systems that keep the regime liquid during a war.
Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Associated Press via The Washington Post.