U.S. Says Iran Used Bitcoin Exchange to Collect Strait of Hormuz Tolls

The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran-based cryptocurrency exchange that authorities say transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and processed payments linked to vessels seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has reportedly charged oil tankers between $1 million and $2 million this year to cross the strategic waterway. According to the Treasury Department, some of those payments have been routed through a Tehran cryptocurrency exchange since June.

In a Thursday announcement, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said it had designated BitBank, a crypto exchange established in Tehran in 2024, along with Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, the software company responsible for developing the platform.

“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

OFAC alleges that BitBank transferred hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an Iranian military organization that plays a major role in the country’s economy and has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.

During the same period, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, which Tehran uses to provide ships with “safe passage” insurance and was itself sanctioned on July 29, reportedly began using BitBank to transfer the proceeds it collected to entities associated with the Iranian regime.

Hormuz Passage Payments

HormuzSafe was developed by Iran’s economy ministry and promotes services including insurance, maritime traffic management and emergency assistance for vessels that make payments.

OFAC said shipping lawyers have argued that the arrangement violates vessels’ transit rights under the Law of the Sea.

The Treasury’s action means that any BitBank property located within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, while U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting transactions with the exchange.

The sanctions also carry secondary-sanctions exposure for the entities involved. Foreign companies that process BitBank-related transactions could therefore face restrictions even if no U.S. person is directly involved.

For offshore cryptocurrency exchanges serving Iranian customers, the main risk is potentially losing access to the U.S. dollar-based financial system rather than facing direct proceedings in a U.S. court.

No Crypto Wallets Listed

The latest action did not identify any individual cryptocurrency wallet addresses.

OFAC has previously included bitcoin and Tron wallet addresses in crypto-related sanctions. For example, the agency published seven Tron addresses when it designated Zedcex in January.

Such wallet identifiers are particularly important for compliance departments because they can be entered directly into transaction-screening systems used to flag sanctioned cryptocurrency activity.

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