U.S. Treasury sanctions BitBank over alleged Iran-linked Bitcoin payment flows

# U.S. Treasury sanctions BitBank over alleged Iran-linked Bitcoin payment flows

> Evidence tier: B1
> Evidence type: Independent crypto-fintech report corroborated by U.S. Treasury and OFAC primary materials
> Source: [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/18/iran-s-strait-of-hormuz-toll-booth-ran-through-a-bitcoin-exchange-u-s-says)
> Published: 2026-09-18
> Captured: 2026-09-18T12:38:32.442Z

## Source summary

CoinDesk reports that OFAC designated Tehran-based BitBank and its software developer. The U.S. Treasury says HormuzSafe used BitBank from June to transfer payments to the Iranian regime and alleges that, between June and July, BitBank infrastructure moved hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC. CoinDesk says some flows related to Strait of Hormuz passage fees; the Treasury release published no wallet addresses.

## Why it matters

The action creates direct sanctions-screening and counterparty risk for digital-asset payment intermediaries handling maritime or Iran-linked flows. The transaction descriptions and amounts are U.S. government allegations, not adjudicated findings; no addresses, transaction list, independent tracing analysis or amount attributable specifically to passage fees was published, and the report does not establish that all BitBank activity was connected to HormuzSafe.

## Key numbers

- **Period of alleged Bitcoin transfers to the IRGC:** June-July 2026
- **Treasury's alleged transfer value:** hundreds of millions of USD

## Topics and entities

- Industry lane: Cross-border market
- Entities: U.S. Treasury / BitBank / HormuzSafe
- Cross-border payments
- Web3 payments
- Payment infrastructure

## Evidence and credibility note

Readable CoinDesk report corroborated by U.S. Treasury and OFAC primary materials. Claims about the flows are government allegations; no wallet addresses or transaction-level evidence were published in the action.

Date evidence: CoinDesk JSON-LD records 2026-09-18T06:52:23.318Z; the underlying U.S. Treasury action is dated September 17, 2026

## First-party corroboration

- [https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0632](/en/items/https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0632)
- [https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20260917](/en/items/https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20260917)

## Original-source traceback

[Open the original CoinDesk report](https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/18/iran-s-strait-of-hormuz-toll-booth-ran-through-a-bitcoin-exchange-u-s-says)

---

This is a structured Payments Hot Markdown source summary derived from external reporting. Use the original link above to read the publisher's article; copyright remains with the original publisher.