Crypto09 September, 20263 min read
US Treasury Designates Iran’s Digital Asset Sector Under Executive Order 13902, Expanding Crypto Sanctions
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US Treasury designates Iran's entire digital asset sector under Executive Order 13902. Designation targets the whole Iranian crypto ecosystem, not individual wallets or exchanges.
OFAC targets Iran’s crypto
The U.S. Treasury, through the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), designated Iran’s entire digital asset sector as sanctionable under Executive Order 13902, expanding enforcement beyond individual wallets or exchanges.
The Cryptonomist says the move “doesn’t target a single wallet or exchange — it targets the whole system Tehran has been quietly building,” and it links the shift to a broader legal hammer announced on August 24.
The same source ties the enforcement push to Operation Economic Fury, saying it has frozen or sanctioned “roughly $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto since April 2026,” with Tether alone blocked $344 million in April and $131 million more in July.
The Cryptonomist also says OFAC sanctioned exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, plus two Nobitex executives, and a Ukrainian broker tied to over $100 million in IRGC oil payments.
In parallel, the Financial Times reporting cited by Crypto News says Iran’s central bank has reportedly eased foreign-exchange controls and tolerated cryptocurrency use for export payments, with an executive telling the publication: “Receiving export payments in crypto has now become completely normalized.”
FX loosening meets sanctions
While OFAC’s sector-wide designation formalizes U.S. enforcement, the Financial Times reporting described by ForkLog says Iran’s central bank “quietly eases FX controls, allowing crypto use in foreign trade.” ForkLog adds that the regulator encouraged repatriation of overseas revenues “by any available means,” and it quotes an executive close to Iranian authorities saying, “The central bank does not ask how the money was transferred.” The same reporting says USDT has become the main crypto instrument for cross-border settlements, and it describes how companies can now exchange currency on the large open market instead of using government-set rates and route part of cross-border settlements through Iranian crypto platforms.
Cointelegraph’s summary of the Financial Times report similarly says exporters can use Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC) to settle cross-border transactions through Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, and it notes that the Central Bank of Iran did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. At the same time, the Cryptonomist frames the U.S. response as tightening pressure on Iran’s crypto channels, saying the August 24 designation gives Washington “a much broader legal hammer than before.”
What’s at stake next
The Cryptonomist says Chainalysis estimates Iran’s crypto ecosystem exceeded $7.8 billion in 2025, and it adds that wallets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accounted for more than half of all on-chain activity in the fourth quarter of 2025. It also reports that Elliptic found Iran’s central bank bought at least $507 million in USDT, describing the purchases as a reserve outside the traditional dollar system, and it links that reserve to enforcement actions including Tether freezes of $344 million in April 2026 and $131 million more in July. The stakes for the wider crypto industry are reflected in the way U.S. sanctions reach intermediaries, with the Cryptonomist saying the same enforcement package that formalized the sector-wide designation also sanctioned a Ukrainian broker accused of routing crypto-based oil payments.
Meanwhile, the TradingView summary of Cointelegraph’s reporting says Days before the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. had seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets, and it adds that on July 14 Bessent said authorities directed a freeze of more than $130 million in crypto held in wallets linked to Iran’s central bank. Finally, the Cryptonomist describes how stablecoins can be targeted at the issuer level, stating that “Tether itself has become an active participant in enforcement,” after it blocked $344 million in USDT in April 2026 and froze additional $131 million in July.