In brief
- OFAC has designated BitBank, an Iranian exchange controlled by financier Babak Zanjani.
- Treasury says Zanjani used it to move hundreds of millions in Bitcoin to the IRGC between June and July.
- The Hormuz toll authority has been routing its payments through the exchange since June.
The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned BitBank, naming the Iranian exchange it says carried the Bitcoin that shipping companies paid for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Since June, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to pass the payments it collects on to the Iranian regime. That authority was the body charging vessels in Bitcoin for transit rights, a scheme Treasury designated in…
