U.S. Unleashes "Economic Fury" on Iran's Crypto Lifeline: Treasury Sanctions Nobitex and Major Exchanges, Freezing $500M in Regime Assets

The Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed extensive penalties against Iran's major cryptocurrency environment on June 2, 2026, targeting Nobitex, the nation's biggest digital asset exchange that handled more than half of all Iranian crypto inflows and around $5 billion in transactions between 2025 and March 2026, as well three other big platforms: Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. The chosen people include Nobitex's chairman and co-founder, Amir Hossein Rad, CEO Seyed Ali Khoee, and two co-founders from the Kharrazi family who are said to be close friends of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's inner circle. Executive Orders 13224 and 13902, which address material support against terrorism and Iran's financial industry, respectively, imposed sanctions.

The Treasury Department claims the exchanges together made possible a broad spectrum of illegal financial activities meant to reduce U.S. pressure on Tehran. These include supporting the Iranian government in getting over American financial restrictions and transferring assets overseas; processing payments related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its related forces overseas; and managing wallets linked to IRGC-linked ransomware actors. Furthermore, charged of assisting the Central Bank of Iran in accessing hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins to support the falling rial as well as of transferring regime riches out of the nation during active U.S. military operations and domestic internet blackouts. Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex each have major market footprints. They processed about 12%, 10%, and over $2.45 billion in transaction volume, respectively.

The start of the Trump administration's "Economic Fury" campaign—a maximum-pressure push meant to cut off Tehran's financial lifelines and force Iranian concessions during continuous U.S.-Israel military exercises—this crackdown signals that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blasted the government for using digital asset technology to advance a "corrupt agenda" as the Iranian economy falters. Concurrent with the designations, Washington has frozen almost $500 million in regime-linked cryptocurrency holdings and offered rewards up to $15 million for intelligence upsetting IRGC financial networks. U.S. officials want to sever a crucial digital sanctions-evasion corridor that had become important in funding military operations and stabilizing the sanctioned Iranian state by directly targeting Iran's crypto infrastructure.