{"id":54367,"date":"2026-08-25T12:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=54367"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:23:19","slug":"us-sanctions-iran-crypto-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/us-sanctions-iran-crypto-economy","title":{"rendered":"US Opens a New Front Against Iran&#8217;s Crypto Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. this week closed in on Iran, further targeting its crypto-related methods of dodging sanctions in a new economic campaign against the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Monday announcement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/sb0613\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> it had placed Iran&#8217;s digital asset sector under the same sanctions authority it has long used against the country&#8217;s oil, banking and metals industries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecScottBessent?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecScottBessent<\/a>: &quot;This is a sustained campaign to collapse every last option for Iran. Let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States: an economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tlx2gcNs1d\">pic.twitter.com\/tlx2gcNs1d<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Treasury Department (@USTreasury) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/USTreasury\/status\/2091973742570135699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 24, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign against the Islamic Republic dubbed &#8220;economic D-Day,&#8221; is a first, and a significant escalation in exposure for crypto businesses worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the new action, the Office of Foreign Assets Control can sanction any person, regardless of where they are located.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Iranian regime increasingly turns to cryptocurrency as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion, supporting transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian regime insiders,&#8221; OFAC said in a statement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Foreign exchanges, OTC desks, payment processors and infrastructure providers that knowingly facilitate transactions supporting Iran&#8217;s digital asset sector are now exposed to designation themselves, along with the loss of access to the U.S. financial system that typically follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OFAC also designated members of a group within the Ministry of Intelligence and Security accused of hacking U.S. critical infrastructure on the regime&#8217;s behalf and published their wallets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Group co-leader Behzad Mesri and members Keyvan Fayyaz Ghareh Blagh and Arman Kahzadian each had bitcoin, and other crypto addresses added to the Treasury&#8217;s sanctioned list. The three belong to a larger MOIS contingent that has pursued U.S. targets through data theft and intrusions against corporations and government offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bloomberg first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-05-18\/iran-starts-bitcoin-backed-shipping-insurance-for-hormuz-strait\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in May that Iran had started a bitcoin-backed insurance service for Iranian shipping companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. in July said that it had frozen crypto linked to the Iranian regime, mostly in the form of the Tether stablecoin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stablecoins like Tether&#8217;s USDT can be frozen by the company that issues the asset but bitcoin, being decentralized and having no single issuer, cannot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has been using Bitcoin to dodge sanctions. The Department of the Treasury wants to shut it off from the crypto economy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3860,"featured_media":54368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[76,1712,2035,6712],"class_list":["post-54367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-iran","tag-ofac","tag-treasury-department"],"author_data":{"id":3860,"name":"Mathew Di Salvo","nicename":"mathewdisalvo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cropped-Mathew-Di-Salvo-scaled-1.jpeg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/US-Opens-a-New-Front-Against-Irans-Crypto-Economy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54370,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54367\/revisions\/54370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}