Overview
- Ari Redbord of TRM Labs said Treasury investigators are examining whether exchanges, stablecoin corridors, liquidity hubs and payment rails helped Iranian officials move funds and access hard currency.
- OFAC last week sanctioned U.K.-registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion for operating in Iran’s financial sector and facilitating transactions for the IRGC, noting that one processed over $94 billion in transactions since 2022.
- TRM Labs identified Zedcex as infrastructure controlled by the IRGC and estimated it handled about $1 billion in IRGC-linked funds, with that share peaking at 87% of its volume in 2024.
- Blockchain analytics firms put Iran’s 2025 crypto activity roughly at $8–10 billion, with Chainalysis estimating $7.8 billion received and assessing about half as IRGC-linked, while TRM Labs attributes about 95% of flows to retail users.
- Sanctions enforcement remains difficult because wallets are easy to replace once flagged, according to Chainalysis, while Tether says it works with authorities to identify and freeze illicit funds.