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The U.S. Treasury did not hesitate. On January 31, 2026, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisted two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, for processing funds tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This marks the first time OFAC has designated entire exchanges under Iran-specific financial sanctions authorities, rather than individual wallets or addresses.
The Treasury linked both platforms to Babak Morteza Zanjani, an Iranian businessman previously convicted of embezzling billions from the National Oil Company. Zanjani’s death sentence was commuted to a 20-year jail term in 2024, after which Treasury claims he resumed laundering money for the regime.
US Treasury sanctions Iran-linked crypto exchanges, crossing into crypto for the first time. pic.twitter.com/arJPz55O5i
— Gina💄🇺🇸 (@gpatterson828) February 1, 2026
Blockchain intelligence from TRM Labs estimated the exchanges handled roughly $1 billion in IRGC-linked funds since 2023, accounting for 56% of their total volume, mostly via Tether’s USDT on Tron. Zedcex alone processed over $94 billion in transactions since its August 2022 registration.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the intent clear: “Treasury will continue to target Iranian networks and corrupt elites that enrich themselves at the expense of the Iranian people. This includes the regime’s attempts to exploit digital assets to evade sanctions and finance cybercriminal operations.”
The designations were part of a wider package sanctioning senior Iranian officials for violent repression of protesters, with more than 875 persons, vessels, and aircraft connected to evasion networks targeted in 2025.
U.S. persons are now prohibited from transacting with the exchanges. While OFAC has previously sanctioned crypto wallets and providers, full exchange blacklisting under Iran financial rules is a significant escalation. It shows regulators now view some platforms as systemic enablers of sanctions evasion, not just incidental facilitators.
Today, @USTreasury is continuing President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign by taking two separate actions against Iran and its proxies.
Treasury is targeting networks that have collectively transported and purchased billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, some of which has…
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) July 3, 2025
The action comes at a time when there is already heightened scrutiny of Iran’s crypto activity. There was a report earlier in January 2026 that Iran’s Central Bank acquired at least $507 million in USDT to support the rial. But this is not a one-off warning. OFAC’s decision to sanction entire exchanges, rather than isolated addresses, signals a shift to the U.S. authorities, treating some platforms as structural components of sanctions evasion networks. The IRGC designation therefore carries a heavy weight as links to a terrorist group could trigger prohibitions and reputational damage that are bound to ripple far beyond the U.S.
🚨 New Elliptic research: We have identified wallets used by Iran's Central Bank to acquire at least $507 million worth of cryptoassets.
The findings suggest that the Iranian regime used these cryptoassets to evade sanctions and support the plummeting value of Iran's currency,… pic.twitter.com/I7NHGO0wtP
— Elliptic (@elliptic) January 21, 2026
For users on Zedcex or Zedxion, access is now cut off domestically, and global compliance teams will likely follow suit. The message from US authorities is that high-volume exchanges in grey jurisdictions, especially those handling large Tron/USDT flows, face growing risk. The ecosystem can expect more of such designations if intelligence ties are established. As a result, compliance first platforms will gain market share, while others risk blacklisting.
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