OFAC’s September 17 designation identifies BitBank, also known as BITBANK3, as an Iran-based exchange established in 2024 and headquartered in Tehran. Treasury says the exchange was controlled by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, a figure with a prior sanctions history linked to oil-revenue evasion.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank on September 17, 2026, alleging the platform was used to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The action, part of an operation Treasury called “Economic Outcast,” extends Washington’s sanctions apparatus directly into Iran’s digital-asset infrastructure.
What the U.S. Treasury Action Against BitBank Alleges
What to Know
- The U.S. Treasury, through OFAC, sanctioned Iranian exchange BitBank on September 17, 2026.
- The stated allegation is that BitBank was used to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC.
OFAC’s September 17 designation identifies BitBank, also known as BITBANK3, as an Iran-based exchange established in 2024 and headquartered in Tehran. Treasury says the exchange was controlled by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, a figure with a prior sanctions history linked to oil-revenue evasion. The same action designated BitBank’s software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, along with three associates of Zanjani. For related coverage, see Fed Raises Rates 25 Bps to 3.75%-4% as Bitcoin Nears $76K.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated: “Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach.” The designations were made under Executive Order 13902, which Treasury says reaches Iran’s digital-asset sector and blocks designated persons’ U.S.-connected property interests while prohibiting American persons from transacting with them. For related coverage, see Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Brace for Fed Decision.
Treasury also says Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, a body linked to passage-fee collection in the Strait of Hormuz, has used BitBank since June 2026 to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime. That detail widens the alleged network beyond a single financier and ties the exchange to Iranian state revenue streams, according to Treasury’s account. Coverage from Unchained noted that the practical weight of the action sits in the secondary sanctions exposure attached to every named entity, meaning non-U.S. businesses that continue dealing with BitBank or its associates risk exclusion from the U.S. financial system.
Alleged Bitcoin Transfers and the IRGC Connection
According to Treasury, Zanjani used BitBank between June and July 2026 to facilitate transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Treasury did not publish wallet addresses, transaction hashes, or a precise Bitcoin total. The alleged transfers cannot be independently reconstructed from a block explorer using the available record. The stated two-month window is the only temporal anchor Treasury provided in its announcement.
The IRGC is designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under U.S. law. Any Bitcoin transfer to the IRGC, if proven, would constitute not only a sanctions violation but a material support offense under U.S. counterterrorism statutes. Treasury’s announcement did not indicate whether a parallel criminal referral has been made.
Why the BitBank Sanctions Matter for Crypto Compliance
The Operation Economic Outcast designations signal that OFAC is expanding its enforcement posture beyond traditional financial rails. Bitcoin’s pseudonymous ledger does not, in Treasury’s view, place transfers outside its jurisdiction; the agency’s position is that U.S.-person exposure anywhere in a transaction chain, including through hosted wallets or fiat off-ramps, is sufficient to trigger liability. Exchanges and custodians with global user bases face renewed pressure to screen counterparties against the OFAC SDN list, where BitBank now appears as entry 58619 with IRAN and IRAN-EO13902 program tags.
Bitcoin was trading at $81,192, up roughly 5% over the prior 24 hours, at the time of publication, with a market capitalization near $1.63 trillion. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index sat at 71, indicating Greed. The enforcement action arrives at a moment when Bitcoin’s market cap is approaching a scale that makes it increasingly difficult for regulators to treat the asset class as peripheral, a dynamic previously noted when Bitcoin’s market cap equaled roughly one year of U.S. deficits.
For compliance teams, the BitBank case adds to a growing set of precedents in which Treasury has targeted digital-asset infrastructure rather than individual wallets. The designation of Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, BitBank’s developer, extends liability upstream into software development, a vector that had not previously been emphasized in OFAC’s crypto-related actions. Firms providing technical services to exchanges operating in sanctioned jurisdictions should treat the Pishtaz designation as a direct warning about developer-side exposure. This enforcement pattern echoes earlier OFAC actions that prompted broad industry-wide compliance reviews, a dynamic that also shaped coverage of Treasury’s Iran-linked crypto-rails enforcement and the legislative debate over the CLARITY Act.
Bitcoin’s fixed supply and permissionless settlement layer make it a natural tool for sanctions circumvention, but that same transparent ledger creates a persistent forensic record. Treasury’s refusal to publish on-chain identifiers in this case leaves open the question of whether the evidentiary basis rests on blockchain analytics, traditional financial intelligence, or both. That distinction will matter if any designated party contests the action in a U.S. court.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
