WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) delivered a sweeping new blow to the Iranian regime’s financial infrastructure on Tuesday, designating Nobitex — Iran’s largest digital asset exchange — and three additional Iranian crypto platforms as part of Operation Economic Fury, the Trump administration’s campaign of maximum economic pressure on Tehran.

The action cuts off one of the regime’s most sophisticated and rapidly growing mechanisms for sanctions evasion: the use of cryptocurrency and digital assets to move money, prop up the collapsing Iranian rial, shield regime wealth from U.S. enforcement, and funnel funds to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its global terror network.

SB

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

@SecScottBessent · U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

While Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country. Iran’s current economic chaos is proof that @POTUS‘ maximum pressure campaign has been a success. As promised, Treasury will continue to follow the money in support of Economic Fury, whether it is through the banking system or through digital assets, to prevent the regime from developing a nuclear weapon.

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Together, the four designated exchanges handled the overwhelming majority of Iran’s digital asset activity — effectively serving as the regime’s parallel, blockchain-based banking system, shielded from international scrutiny and free from the controls imposed on the traditional financial sector.

The designation of Nobitex is the centerpiece of Tuesday’s action — and the picture painted by Treasury is damning. The exchange was not simply a platform for ordinary Iranians to buy and sell digital currency. It was, according to OFAC, a financial lifeline for the regime itself: processing IRGC transactions, helping the Central Bank of Iran access hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins to prop up the plummeting rial, enabling regime insiders to circumvent international sanctions, and — after U.S. combat operations began in Iran — actively helping move assets out of the country to shield regime wealth despite widespread internet blackouts.

Two of Nobitex’s co-founders are members of the Kharrazi family — part of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s personal inner circle. The exchange has also reportedly been used to conduct warrantless surveillance of Iranian civilians at a time of mass government repression, making it not merely a financial instrument of the regime but a tool of domestic political control.

Tuesday’s designations are the latest chapter in a relentless Treasury Department campaign that has targeted tens of billions of dollars in Iranian regime revenue across multiple financial sectors. Since the launch of Operation Economic Fury alongside U.S. military operations, Treasury has systematically dismantled the financial architecture sustaining the Iranian regime and its proxy network.

The message from Washington is clear and consistent: there is no financial corridor, no blockchain, no stablecoin, and no shadow network that puts Iran’s regime beyond the reach of American economic power. As the Trump administration simultaneously pursues a diplomatic resolution to the Iran conflict and maintains its military blockade, Economic Fury ensures that Tehran negotiates not from a position of financial comfort — but from a position of escalating economic desperation.

Iran’s choice to co-opt cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion was not an act of financial ingenuity. It was a confession of weakness — the move of a regime that has run out of legitimate options. And now, that last financial refuge has been targeted too.

This article is based on an official press release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, June 3, 2026, and a public statement by Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent).