US Treasury Sanctions Crypto Exchanges Aban Tether and Shelbit Over Iran Sanctions Evasion

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the cryptocurrency exchange Aban Tether for conducting transactions with previously sanctioned Iranian exchanges. According to Arzdigital, the US agency alleges Aban Tether processed millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, and designated the platform under Executive Order 13902, signed in 2020.

The Treasury simultaneously sanctioned the UAE-based exchange Shelbit for facilitating sanctions evasion and moving assets tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; the agency alleges Shelbit received more than 1 million dollars from IRGC-linked addresses and transferred over 2 million dollars to wallets it controls. An individual named Siavash Keyvanpour, along with a network of companies in Georgia, Poland and the UAE, was also added to the sanctions list. According to Ecoiran, citing Zoomit, the action follows the sanctioning of four exchanges, Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, in June, and is described as part of a broader Washington effort to limit Iran's use of stablecoins in cross-border transactions.