US sanctions Dubai crypto exchange for aiding Iran's IRGC: Reuters report

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 31 July 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 2 June 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, with no way for customers to carry out transactions, 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 LLC 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 organisation," Shelbit said in a statement on its reactivated website on 1 August. Shelbit also said it had ceased operations in January 2026.

Shelbit and Kayvanpour did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tens of millions of dollars of the crypto that passed through Shelbit came from a suspected Iranian bitcoin mining operation, which mints new digital coins. Many millions of dollars more were linked to the illegal gambling network operated by two high-profile Iranian social media influencers, Reuters reported.

"The Iranian regime's willingness to allow this gambling network to operate highlights its hypocrisy and corruption," Treasury said in the statement published on its website.

The OFAC designation comes soon after Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA, issued a notice saying Shelbit was in violation of money-laundering and terrorism financing laws.

"The exposure identified by VARA extends beyond consumer protection to more egregious cross-border transactions with the propension to impact the integrity of the UAE financial system," VARA said in a notice on its website on 24 July, shortly after Reuters approached the authority for comment.

VARA did not respond to a request for comment.