Reuters report: Dubai-based crypto exchange linked to a $4 billion Iran sanctions-evasion network

Reuters reported in an investigation on Friday 31 July 2026 that a large illegal gambling network based in Dubai has moved millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency through what the report describes as a $4 billion Iranian sanctions-evasion operation. According to the report, the network, with more than 2,000 platforms, is considered one of the world's largest and is a major customer of Shelbit, an unlicensed crypto exchange run by Siavash Kayvanpour, an Iranian expatriate.

Reuters wrote that Shelbit is the hub of the operation, through which the gambling network, Iran's central bank and other sanctioned Iranian entities have had access to global crypto markets. The Central Bank of Iran has been under US counterterrorism sanctions since 2019. According to the same report, Shelbit has moved hundreds of millions of dollars to some of the most prominent crypto companies, including Binance. Binance said in response that Shelbit had never held an account on its platform and that transactions linked to Shelbit were not considered high risk; the exchange added that it investigated users associated with Shelbit, froze the relevant accounts and reported them to law enforcement.

John Wojcik, a senior analyst at TRM Labs and a former researcher at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, called it the biggest Iranian illegal gambling network discovered to date. Rich Sanders, an independent blockchain researcher, described Shelbit as an operation tied to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, but Reuters stated explicitly that it could not confirm whether the Guard directly controls Shelbit or the gambling network. According to the report, Shelbit interacted directly with Iran's central bank and with Nobitex, the Iranian exchange sanctioned by the United States earlier this year. Crypto rails are one of the channels under scrutiny in discussions of sanctions and currency transfers for Iranian market participants.