The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added UK-based cryptocurrency exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion to its sanctions list for allegedly helping Iran circumvent sanctions.
This move is noteworthy because it marks the first time OFAC has targeted digital asset exchanges in Iran due to their activities within the financial sector.
OFAC also added seven Iranian individuals, including six linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and businessman Babak Morteza Zanjani to its sanctions list. Officials stated that addresses connected to this network have conducted transactions exceeding $389 million to date.
According to a statement from the Treasury, Zanjani was sentenced to death in 2016 for embezzling billions of dollars from the Iranian National Oil Company, but his sentence was commuted in 2024. In April 2025, it was stated that he financed one of the largest railway investments in Iran.
OFAC reported that Zedcex and Zedxion have ties to Zanjani and that numerous wallet addresses attributed to these exchanges processed funds for accounts associated with the IRGC. It was noted that Zedcex has processed over $94 billion in transaction volume since its inception in August 2022, while Zedxion listed Zanjani as an administrator upon its founding in May 2021.
In this context, OFAC added both exchanges, along with Zanjani, to its sanctions list under relevant presidential decrees for operating in Iran’s financial sector and providing material, financial, or technological support to the IRGC.
*This is not investment advice.
