The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added BitBank—an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange managed by financier Babak Zanjani—to its sanctions list on September 17 under Operation Economic Outcast, as detailed in a Treasury press release. The measures likewise encompass the platform’s software developer and three individuals associated with Zanjani, specifically aiming at the digital infrastructure that the department states was utilized to channel hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
A Bitcoin Pipeline to the IRGC
According to OFAC, the already-sanctioned Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has leveraged BitBank since June to route incoming payments directly to the Iranian government. Over June and July of this year, Zanjani relied on the exchange to help move hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin toward the IRGC. The Treasury noted that BitBank’s software was built by Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, a subsidiary of the previously sanctioned Dot One Value Creation Group. Zanjani received a death sentence in Iran in 2016 for embezzlement, which was later commuted in 2024, paving the way for his 2025 reappearance as a financier for regime-affiliated ventures.
Executives Named in the Designation
In addition to BitBank and Pishtaz Simorgh, OFAC sanctioned three officials identified as central figures in Zanjani’s cryptocurrency network: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized that the action demonstrates how attempts to fund the Iranian administration via digital currency remain fully within the regulator’s scope. “If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you,” he stated. These designations fall under Executive Order 13902, which focuses on Iran’s digital asset industry.
Broadening the Economic Outcast Campaign
This move grows Operation Economic Outcast, an administration-wide initiative initiated by the Treasury on August 24—also referred to as “Economic D-Day”—designed to choke off the regime’s remaining sources of income. It builds on prior actions against Iranian crypto operations, such as a crackdown highlighting a processor within Iran’s sanctions-evasion network and penalties against a Bitcoin-oriented platform connected to the IRGC for vessels operating in the Strait of Hormuz. The Treasury indicated it will persist in targeting both the Iranian digital asset ecosystem and the global entities assisting it.
