U.S. Treasury Expands Sanctions to Cover Iran's Digital Asset Industry

The U.S. Treasury Department announced this week that it has included Iran's digital asset industry under the same sanctions framework long used against its oil, banking, and financial sectors, further tightening restrictions on Iran's use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions. The action is part of an initiative called "Operation Economic Outcast," described as an "economic D-Day" for Iran, and marks a significant escalation in global risks for cryptocurrency businesses. Under the new action, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is authorized to impose sanctions on individuals in any location. OFAC stated that Iran is increasingly turning to cryptocurrencies as a preferred tool to evade sanctions, supporting transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and insiders within the Iranian regime. Foreign exchanges, over-the-counter trading desks, payment processors, and infrastructure providers that knowingly support transactions in Iran's digital asset industry face the risk of being added to the sanctions list and losing access to the U.S. financial system. OFAC also sanctioned members of a group within Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) accused of attacking U.S. critical infrastructure on behalf of Iran, and published their wallet addresses. The group's co-leader, Behzad Mesri, along with members Keyvan Fayyaz Ghareh Blagh and Arman Kahzadian, had their Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency addresses added to the sanctions list. This follows a previous Bloomberg report that Iran had launched Bitcoin-backed insurance services for shipping companies, and the U.S. also froze crypto assets linked to the Iranian regime in July, most of which were Tether stablecoins.