Quick Take

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has used two cryptocurrency exchanges registered in the United Kingdom to move approximately $1 billion since 2023, evading international sanctions, according to a new analysis from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reported by The Washington Post.

The two exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, are essentially the same operation under different brand names, TRM Labs found. IRGC-linked transactions accounted for 56% of the exchanges' total volume between 2023 and 2025, with the vast majority conducted in Tether's 

IRGC-linked activity scaled quickly, growing from $24 million in 2023 to $619 million in 2024 and $410 million in 2025, per the report. The findings suggest Iran is moving beyond one-off crypto transactions toward building dedicated financial infrastructure to evade sanctions.

"The $1 billion figure over two years demonstrates that digital currencies are becoming a financial channel for Iran's shadow banking apparatus," Miad Maleki, a former US Treasury official who worked on Iran sanctions efforts, told The Washington Post.

The IRGC is under sweeping US and Western sanctions partly due to concerns over Iran's nuclear program. It also provides financial support to Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah, considered by the US to be terrorist organizations. The Financial Times reported recently that Iran is looking to accept crypto payments in its sales of ballistic missiles, warships, and other advanced weapons. 

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To trace the exchanges' operations, TRM Labs made small deposits and withdrawals to unmask their internal wallet infrastructure. Investigators also followed funds involving 187 wallet addresses that Israeli authorities designated last year as IRGC-controlled. Among the transactions identified was a $10 million payment from an IRGC wallet to addresses controlled by a Yemeni national whom the U.S. Treasury sanctioned in 2021 for smuggling Iranian fuel to fund the Houthis.

TRM Labs also linked the exchanges to Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman who helped the government evade oil sanctions under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Zanjani was later convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to death in Iran, though the sentence was commuted and he was recently released from prison.

Both exchanges claim on their websites to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations. Zedcex lists Iran among its prohibited jurisdictions; Zedxion does not. Neither responded to questions from The Washington Post. A spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations and the British Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation also declined to comment to the publication.