The legal action comes amid escalating missile warfare between Iran and the U.S. since February. The conflict has severely disrupted global oil flows and triggered a sharp rise in energy prices worldwide. Iran’s own crude exports have tanked due to a strict U.S. naval blockade and regional fighting around the Strait of Hormuz. In turn, Iran has reportedly been using crypto to bypass the blockade and keep trade flowing.
According to the DOJ statement, prosecutors identified a massive $1.5 billion underground pipeline, internally dubbed “Entity A,” that moved black-market Iranian oil money through a complex web of unhosted cryptocurrency wallets.
Because unhosted wallets store digital assets outside of centralized exchanges or third parties, they function much like stashing physical cash in a house to prevent authorities from freezing it. This network transferred massive sums of illicit cash directly to an Iranian crypto exchange, as well as digital wallets and businesses tied to the IRGC.
Two Chinese companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, allegedly acted as the primary facilitators coordinating the vast majority of these multi-million dollar transfers.
Both firms used trading accounts on Binance to launder the black-market oil proceeds before funneling the funds back to the Iranian government and its proxies, the statement said.
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Omkar Godbole
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/15/u-s-doj-seeks-usd61-million-in-what-it-calls-crypto-laundered-iranian-oil-proceeds
2026-09-15 05:12:00
