The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned BitBank, an Iranian digital asset exchange it says was used to move funds to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The September 17 action also names the exchange's software developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, and three associates of financier Babak Zanjani. Treasury describes BitBank as part of a wider network built to move money around sanctions.

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Zanjani used BitBank between June and July to facilitate transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC. Treasury also says an authority involved with payments related to passage through the Strait of Hormuz used the exchange to transfer funds to the Iranian government. Those claims are the U.S. government's stated basis for the designations.

The action reaches beyond the exchange itself. Pishtaz Simorgh developed BitBank's digital asset software and is linked to Zanjani's Dot One group. The three individuals named by Treasury held roles in that broader business network. By designating the developer and associates alongside the trading platform, OFAC is targeting the people and infrastructure it says supported the transfers, rather than only the exchange's customer-facing service.

U.S. sanctions generally block the designated parties' property under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit covered U.S. persons from dealing with them. BitBank's designation follows earlier measures against other businesses linked to Zanjani. The September action is specifically significant for its Bitcoin allegations: Treasury is treating exchange software, financial facilitators and the movement of tokens as connected parts of one sanctions-evasion network.