US sanctions Dubai crypto exchange for aiding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

The US Treasury sanctioned Dubai-based crypto exchange Shelbit for allegedly processing millions of dollars for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian-linked entities. The action follows a Reuters investigation identifying Shelbit as a hub in a $4 billion sanctions evasion scheme. Treasury also sanctioned founder Siavash Kayvanpour and Iran-based exchange Aban Tether. Shelbit denies the allegations.

The United States on Friday sanctioned an unlicensed multi-state cryptocurrency exchange, alleging it processed millions of dollars of crypto for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other groups linked to the Iranian state. The designation follows a Reuters investigation published on July 31 that identified the Dubai-based exchange, Shelbit, as the hub of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion scheme. The investigation found that Shelbit moved crypto on behalf of Iran’s central bank, one of the world’s largest illegal online gambling networks, and to addresses linked by the Israeli government to the IRGC. The US Treasury also sanctioned the expatriate Iranian who founded Shelbit and a network of other companies, Siavash Kayvanpour, for providing material support to the IRGC and Nobitex, Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. The US sanctioned Nobitex on June 2 for enabling the Iranian government to circumvent Western sanctions, also after a Reuters investigation. “Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. Also on Friday, the US Treasury announced it had sanctioned Aban Tether, an Iran-based crypto exchange, for processing millions of dollars of transactions for sanctioned Iranian entities including Nobitex. Shelbit’s website had been down for months, but the exchange continued to process money, even during the US and Israeli war against Iran. The site reactivated the day after the Reuters investigation was published. Shelbit categorically rejects any suggestion that the company knowingly participated in money laundering, terrorist financing, illegal gambling activity, sanctions evasion, or activity on behalf of any sanctioned, military, or governmental organization. Shelbit also said it had ceased operations in January 2026. Tens of millions of dollars of the crypto that passed through Shelbit came from a suspected Iranian bitcoin mining operation, and many millions more were linked to the illegal gambling network operated by two high-profile Iranian social media influencers. The OFAC designation comes soon after Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued a notice saying Shelbit was in violation of money-laundering and terrorism financing laws.