The United States Department of the Treasury announced on Tuesday, June 2, that, within the framework of its “Economic Wrath” campaign, it has sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, alongside three other exchanges.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that while the Islamic Republic faces an economic crisis, it has used digital asset technology to advance its objectives, including circumventing sanctions and transferring capital abroad.
“The current turmoil in the Iranian economy demonstrates that Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign has been successful,” Bessent said. He added that the Treasury Department will continue to track the financial resources of the Islamic Republic, whether through the banking system or through digital assets, to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
According to the statement, Nobitex processed more than 50% of all digital asset inflows into Iran in 2025 and played a role in facilitating transactions linked to activities attributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, bypassing sanctions, and transferring government assets.
The US Treasury Department also claimed that Nobitex assisted the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic in accessing hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins to prop up the value of the rial. The American institution further accused Nobitex of enabling Iranian officials and individuals close to the government to access international cryptocurrency exchanges and circumvent sanctions.
