A modest office above a budget hotel concealed a financial trail spanning gambling platforms, sanctioned entities and hundreds of millions sent to Binance.

Shelbit, an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange registered in Dubai, may have become one of the key channels for circumventing Iranian sanctions. At least $4 billion has passed through its crypto wallets since May 2024. Some of these funds are linked to a large Persian-language network of illegal online casinos spanning more than 2,000 websites.

Shelbit’s official address is an office above a budget hotel in Dubai’s Deira district. The exchange is run by Iranian national Siavash Kayvanpour. Blockchain data indicates that tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency linked to…