US Treasury targets Iran's crypto sector over $100M in oil payments

The US Treasury expanded sanctions to cover Iran's entire digital asset sector, alleging a UAE-based broker processed more than $100 million in crypto to facilitate Iranian oil sales, Cointelegraph reported.

Treasury said Monday that the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued sectoral sanctions determinations covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. The agency also sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals, and vessels across nuclear, missile, cyber, and oil networks in the same action.

Sectoral sanctions determinations work differently from sanctioning a single company. Once Treasury designates a sector, OFAC can add anyone found to operate within it to the sanctions list without a separate rulemaking each time, giving the agency a faster path to penalize new intermediaries as they surface rather than chasing each one individually.

The digital asset determination lets OFAC sanction foreign individuals and companies that operate in or provide services supporting Iran's digital asset sector, rather than requiring the agency to name each platform individually. Treasury said Iran increasingly uses crypto as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion, including for transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and government insiders.

Crypto appeals to sanctioned regimes because it can move value across borders without touching the correspondent banking system that enforces most US sanctions. That same public ledger, though, leaves a trail that firms like TRM Labs and Chainalysis use to trace the flows Treasury cites in actions like this one.

OFAC alleged that UAE-based Ukrainian broker Ivan Obukhov processed over $100 million in crypto payments since 2023 to facilitate oil sales on behalf of the IRGC's Quds Force, and sanctioned Obukhov along with his UAE-based company, Foscom FZE.

The sector-wide measure follows a run of narrower US actions. In January, OFAC sanctioned UK-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion, its first Iran-related designations of digital asset platforms. On June 3, Treasury sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges, including the country's largest, Nobitex, days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US had seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iranian exchanges and wallets. Most recently, OFAC sanctioned exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether on Aug. 7, alleging they facilitated a combined $5 million in digital assets connected to Iran.

• Alleged crypto processed by Obukhov since 2023: over $100 million
• Entities, individuals, and vessels sanctioned in Monday's broader action: nearly 60
• January designations: Zedcex and Zedxion, the first Iran-linked exchange sanctions
• June 3 action: four Iranian exchanges, including Nobitex, following nearly $1 billion in seized crypto
• Aug. 7 action: Shelbit and Aban Tether, $5 million combined

Unlike the earlier actions, which named specific platforms one at a time, the new determination gives Treasury a standing basis to sanction anyone tied to Iran's digital asset sector broadly. Treasury said the move significantly expands its ability to sanction foreign individuals and companies operating in or supporting the covered sectors, and the accompanying OFAC determination puts anyone found to operate in that sector under Executive Order 13902. Designated parties' US-linked property must be blocked, and foreign banks that process significant transactions for them risk losing access to US accounts.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.