The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Shelbit and Aban Tether, two Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, under executive order 13224 on Wednesday, according to a Treasury announcement. The action expands Washington's effort to isolate Iran's financial system from global crypto and foreign exchange markets.
The sanctions follow OFAC's designation of four major Iranian exchanges, Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, on June 2, 2026. Together, the two waves of actions now cover six platforms that handle a substantial portion of Iran's retail and institutional cryptocurrency trading. Treasury did not disclose the trading volumes or transaction counts of the newly targeted exchanges.
Shelbit and Aban Tether operate among Iran's largest crypto platforms by user base, according to Iranian market data. Shelbit allows peer-to-peer trading and staking of various digital assets. Aban Tether specializes in tether trading and currency conversion services, serving as a key conduit for Iranians to move value into and out of blockchain-based assets. Both exchanges have served as gateways for converting Iranian rial into cryptocurrency.
U.S. sanctions on Iranian crypto platforms target the country's circumvention of financial restrictions tied to its nuclear program, ballistic missile development, and designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Blocking access to exchanges reduces Iran's ability to convert sanctioned assets into usable currency or to move capital across borders in ways that evade traditional banking surveillance.
The designations prohibit U.S. persons and entities from transacting with Shelbit and Aban Tether. American financial institutions must freeze any assets belonging to the exchanges that exist within U.S. jurisdiction. The practical effect on the exchanges themselves depends on whether they hold dollar reserves in U.S. banking channels, which neither has disclosed.
Iran's crypto market has grown as a workaround to international banking restrictions. The country's central bank has explored digital asset regulation as a hedge against currency depreciation. OFAC has designated six exchanges across two separate actions in two months.
Two sanctions waves in two months on six exchanges show OFAC is accelerating its pace of action against Iranian crypto infrastructure. The lack of disclosed compliance failures or money-laundering charges leaves unclear what specific operational or policy changes preceded the designations.
