Bureaucrats, Bitcoins, and the IRGC: A Crypto Satire

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Key Highlights

  • Two UK-registered crypto exchanges are slapped with sanctions for aiding Iran and the IRGC in moving money, a novelty in the annals of bureaucratic theater.
  • Chain of numbers reveals Iran used exchanges and wallets to sidestep sanctions and move billions, as if crossing a village fair without tickets or clerkly permission.
  • The U.S. tightens the screws, targeting crypto networks, officials, and exchanges tied to human rights abuses, with the sternness of a schoolmaster weighing the class schedule.

In the murky year of cyber-lamps, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known to the clerks as OFAC, designated two UK-registered exchanges-Zedcex Exchange Ltd. and Zedxion Exchange Ltd.-for fraternizing with Iran’s financial realm and assisting the IRGC in their curious coin-trusting commerce.

The official release proclaims this as the first instance of digital asset exchanges being sanctioned for Iran-related financial gymnastics. In a declaration that could melt the wax from a candle, Secretary Scott Bessent is quoted saying, “Like rats on a sinking ship, the regime is frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world.”

Chainalysis on-chain maps reveal that Zedcex, born amid August thunderstorms of 2022, processed more than $94 billion in transactions; Zedxion, born in May 2021, initially named an Iranian businessman Babak Morteza Zanjani as its director, as if a name could bless the ledger with legitimacy.

Both exchanges, according to the records, belong to a web designed to dodge sanctions and launder money for Iranian state interests. The Treasury’s head, with the gravity of a man counting coins in a coal furnace, remarked that the regime would rather squander the nation’s oil revenues on weapons than build a decent economy.

Digital asset networks and IRGC links

OFAC’s reach extends to seven Tron addresses tied to Zedcex, several of which Israel’s NBCTF had previously identified as controlled by the IRGC. The addresses, such as TCA9..xJAv and TGsN..vmEx, show wallets conversing with Iranian exchanges, sanctioned groups, and even legitimate services, as if the cryptosphere were a busy bazaar where every stall murmurs illicit tricks behind the stallkeeper’s back.

Babak Morteza Zanjani, once sentenced to death in Iran for embezzling billions, now appears as a financial sponsor for grand infrastructure schemes. The OFAC calls him an “Iranian businessman and sanctions evader.” His association with the exchanges hints at labyrinths of digital coin-movement schemes, and the sanctions aim to choke off this flow to the IRGC’s coffers.

Iran’s broader crypto exploitation

The saga continues: Iran uses cryptocurrency to dodge sanctions. In 2025, OFAC designated hundreds of individuals and entities for sanction evasion. The Iranian Central Bank purchased $507 million worth of USDT through UAE dirhams to prop up the Rial and sustain international trade.

After a $90 million hack at Nobitex in June, Iran shifted its USDT across networks, shuffling tokens like a crafty card-counter. OFAC has previously targeted IRGC-linked figures and Houthi financiers. These tales show Iran and its proxies persist in moving money through cryptography as if it were a trickster’s parlor game.

Moreover, OFAC’s latest moves also target six Iranian officials tied to human rights abuses, including Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni Kalagari and IRGC commanders involved in violent crackdowns. The upshot is a reminder that money-whether glimmering on the blockchain or gleaming in a ledger-still obeys the same old rules: miscreants will be watched, and the watchers are not amused.

OFAC’s act signals a wider gaze on cryptocurrency exchanges. Exchanges are now urged to tighten identity checks and monitor risky transactions, lest the money flow become a chorus line of miscreants. The moral of this Gogolian episode, if one must be drawn, is that money leaves fingerprints even on the sleekest digital parchment, and the watchers are never far away.

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2026-01-31 16:03