Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shifted about $1 billion in cryptocurrency via two UK-registered exchanges from 2023 to 2025, bypassing Western sanctions. Blockchain firm TRM Labs revealed the transactions, which mostly involved Tether's USDT on the Tron network. The activity highlights cryptocurrency's role in evading financial restrictions.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reported this week that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) processed roughly $1 billion in cryptocurrency through Zedcex and Zedxion, two exchanges registered in the United Kingdom, between 2023 and 2025. The findings, also covered by The Washington Post, show IRGC-linked transactions accounting for 56% of the platforms' total volume during this period. The exchanges functioned as a single entity despite separate UK corporate filings, with transfers primarily using Tether's USDT stablecoin on the Tron blockchain for its liquidity and low costs.
Activity escalated over time: from $24 million in 2023 to $619 million in 2024, when it comprised 87% of all transactions, before falling to $410 million in 2025 as other users increased. Miad Maleki, a former US Treasury official focused on Iran sanctions, described the scale to The Washington Post: "The $1 billion figure over two years demonstrates that digital currencies are becoming a financial channel for Iran's shadow banking apparatus."
Both platforms filed dormant accounts in the UK through June 2025, indicating no active local trading. Corporate records link them to Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman sanctioned by the US and EU in 2013 for oil sales amid restrictions; his sentence for embezzling over $2 billion was commuted in 2024 after repayment. A director named Babak Morteza, matching Zanjani's birth details, oversaw Zedxion since its 2021 incorporation, while Zedcex started in mid-2022 using the same address.
Further, over $10 million flowed directly from IRGC and exchange-linked wallets to addresses of Sa'id Ahmad Muhammad al-Jamal, sanctioned in 2021 for funding Yemen's Houthis via Iranian fuel smuggling. Funds also reached major Iranian exchanges like Nobitex, which faced an $82 million hack in June 2025. Israeli firm Nominis corroborated at least $150 million in IRGC ties. Ari Redbord of TRM Labs noted: "Iranian-linked actors, including sanctioned military organizations, appear to be testing more persistent crypto infrastructure."
Tether emphasized its sanctions compliance, having frozen related wallets after a September 2025 Israeli seizure order for 187 addresses. The UK Treasury, Iran's UN mission, and the exchanges declined to comment.
