The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned two more Iran-linked crypto exchanges, Aban Tether and Shelbit, on Friday, Mordad 16, 1405 (August 7, 2026). With this action, the number of Iranian or Iran-linked crypto exchanges placed on the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list since Khordad 12, 1405 (June 2, 2026) has reached six. According to the US Treasury Secretary, this is part of a campaign against Iran's parallel financial networks that targets "dollars, rials, or crypto" alike.
Background
The first round of these sanctions came on Tuesday, Khordad 12, 1405 (June 2, 2026), when OFAC designated four exchanges, Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, for their role in evading Iran sanctions. About two months later, on Friday, Mordad 16, 1405, the Treasury added Aban Tether and Shelbit in a second round, along with Siavash Kayvanpour (born in Iran, holding Dominican and Afghan citizenship, resident in the UAE) and several companies linked to him in Georgia, Poland and the UAE, including Shelbit Technologies, Crypto Home and NFT Home. Per the Treasury's statement, the UAE's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) had already taken enforcement action against the UAE entity tied to Shelbit in January 2025 and July 2026, though the statement says the company remains in business.
The numbers behind this round
- Khordad 12, 1405 (June 2, 2026): Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex were sanctioned (sources: Ecoiran, citing Zoomit, Mordad 19, 1405; and the US Treasury statement, Mordad 16, 1405).
- Mordad 16, 1405 (August 7, 2026): Aban Tether and Shelbit were sanctioned (sources: official US Treasury press release, Mordad 16, 1405; and Arzdigital, Mordad 17, 1405).
- Per the US Treasury's own claim, over $1 million in digital assets moved from IRGC-linked addresses to Shelbit Exchange addresses, and over $2 million moved the other way, from Shelbit to IRGC addresses (sources: US Treasury statement and Arzdigital's report, both Mordad 16 to 17, 1405; this figure has not been independently confirmed or disputed by Shelbit or any other party).
What's driving it
The action is part of a campaign the Treasury calls "Economic Fury," built on the president's National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), a policy of maximum economic pressure on Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the Mordad 16 statement: "Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat." Per the statement, Aban Tether processed millions of dollars in transactions with all four exchanges sanctioned in Khordad (Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex), while Shelbit serviced a large network of Persian-language gambling websites run by two Iranian influencers based outside the country. Per the same statement, tens of millions of dollars in digital assets from this gambling network were laundered through Shelbit, even though the two individuals were already convicted of illegal gambling inside Iran in 1402 (2023); their websites still have access to Iran's domestic payment systems.
Outlook
Aban Tether, a day after being sanctioned (Saturday, Mordad 17), said in a statement that the sanction "creates no new restriction" and that user assets remain secure, a claim that has not been independently verified. The record of the four exchanges sanctioned in Khordad shows that an OFAC designation, even when it does not directly freeze assets inside Iran, can limit an exchange's access to global liquidity, counterparty exchanges, and some international transfer routes, a risk that eventually reaches the Iranian user. Given the roughly two-month gap between the two rounds, a third round in the coming months cannot be ruled out, though no exact timing has been announced by official sources.
Bottom line
In under three months, the list of Iran-linked crypto exchanges under US sanctions has grown from four to six: Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex in Khordad, Aban Tether and Shelbit in Mordad. The key point for an Iranian user is not that these sanctions will freeze their assets tomorrow, but that each new round shrinks the number of exchanges that still have access to global liquidity and counterparties.
What to watch
Watch for whether OFAC adds another exchange or individual to this list in the coming months, whether Aban Tether or Shelbit users report new withdrawal problems, and whether Iranian institutions issue an official response to this round of sanctions. For more on the difference between holding crypto on an exchange versus in your own wallet, and exactly which link in the financial chain a sanction cuts, see Who Actually Holds Your Crypto? and Sanctions Mechanics. For background on Tether's role as Iran's "digital dollar," see Crypto from Scratch.
