The US Treasury Department has sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest domestic cryptocurrency exchange, for its role in facilitating sanctions evasion and financing terrorist activities linked to the Iranian regime.
Nobitex is no small operation. The exchange is estimated to handle roughly 70% of Iran’s digital asset trading volume, making it the dominant on-ramp and off-ramp for crypto in a country that has long used digital currencies to sidestep international financial restrictions.
The IRGC connection
Nobitex’s ties to Iran’s state apparatus run deep. The exchange has documented connections to both the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, two entities that sit at the center of the US sanctions architecture targeting Tehran.
A Reuters investigation published in May 2026 found that Nobitex processed financial flows amounting to tens to hundreds of millions of dollars linked to sanctioned entities.
