Britain just froze assets and imposed travel bans on 12 individuals and entities tied to Iran’s Zindashti network, a sprawling operation accused of laundering billions of dollars through exchange houses while simultaneously coordinating Iranian-backed hostile activity in the West.

The sanctions are notable not just for the geopolitical drama, but for what they reveal about how state-linked actors are exploiting crypto infrastructure at industrial scale. Two UK-registered exchanges, Zedxion and Zedcex, sit at the center of the operation, having processed roughly $1 billion since 2021, predominantly in Tether’s USDT on the Tron blockchain.

The exchange houses at the center

Zedxion had a director listed with…