The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned the Iranian crypto exchange BitBank, alleging it enabled Bitcoin payments tied directly to ship passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury says the issue is not just routine crypto transfers. The allegation centers on digital payments being embedded into payments for access to one of the world’s busiest and most strategically sensitive oil shipping lanes. Treasury claims BitBank was controlled by sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani and formed part of a broader sanctions-evasion network.
Specifically, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, already sanctioned in July, is accused of using BitBank from June onward to transfer toll payments intended for the Iranian regime. In that same time frame, from June to July, Treasury says Zanjani processed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Treasury frames this as an enforcement case centered on trade infrastructure.
Treasury paired these sanctions with designations against BitBank’s software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh, and associated individuals. The department emphasized that facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion risks exclusion from the U.S. financial system. As of now, the full blockchain evidence behind the alleged flows has not been publicly released.