The US Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange, accusing it of helping transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The sanctions, imposed by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), target BitBank, its developer Pishtaz Simorgh Electronics, and three associates of Iranian financier Babak Zanjani.

Treasury accused Zanjani of using BitBank between June and July to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as part of alleged efforts to evade US sanctions.

The department claimed that BitBank was a key component of infrastructure allegedly used by Zanjani to launder funds and transfer money to Iranian state-linked entities.

"Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC's reach," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

"If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you," he added.

Treasury further claimed that Zanjani has promoted BitBank on his social media accounts since at least 2024 and that the exchange has been listed as a partner by companies within his sanctions evasion network.

The three individuals designated are Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari, whom Treasury accused of being executives involved in Zanjani’s digital asset activities. (AA)