Washington announced sanctions against Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange ⁠on Tuesday, accusing it of enabling the Iranian government and blacklisted state institutions to evade western sanctions.

Nobitex had become ⁠a central node in a shadow financial system used to process hundreds of millions of ​dollars ⁠for Iran’s central bank and ‌the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

A Reuters report last month revealed how Nobitex continued operating even after ​the government-imposed internet shutdown, processing millions of dollars of transactions.

“While Iran’s economy is in free-fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring…