LONDON, June 2 : The United States announced sanctions on Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange on Tuesday, accusing it of enabling the Iranian government and blacklisted state institutions to circumvent Western sanctions.

The new sanctions follow a Reuters investigation published on May 1 which showed how Nobitex had become a central node in a parallel financial system used to process hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The report also 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…