U.S. widens Iran crackdown to encompass crypto, gold, shipping and technology
核心要点
- The U.S.
The U.S. Treasury has added Iran’s cryptocurrency industry to the sectors it can sanction, opening foreign exchanges, brokers and service providers to potential blacklisting as Washington expands financial pressure on Tehran.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a determination allowing it to sanction any person, regardless of location, it determines operates in Iran’s cryptocurrency sector.
“The Iranian regime increasingly turns to cryptocurrency as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion, supporting transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian regime insiders,” a Treasury announcement reads.
Iran’s crypto ecosystem reached $7.78 billion in 2025, according to Chainalysis data. IRGC-linked wallets received more than $3 billion during the year and accounted for over half of Iranian crypto inflows in the fourth quarter, though the estimates cover only wallets publicly tied to sanctions listings.
Crypto was one of five sectors named under Operation Economic Outcast, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described as an economic “D–Day.” Technology, gold, aviation and shipping were the other included sectors.