Iran Used UK Crypto Platforms to Evade Sanctions With $1B in Secret Flows: Report
Two crypto exchanges registered in the United Kingdom processed roughly $1 billion in transactions linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps whereas publicly working as typical buying and selling platforms, blockchain intelligence agency TRM Labs revealed in a January 9 report.
Zedcex and Zedxion facilitated operational financing for the IRGC, with illicit flows accounting for roughly 56% of their whole transaction quantity and peaking at 87% in 2024.
The exchanges integrated in the UK between 2021 and 2022 used nominal administrators, digital workplace addresses, and repeatedly filed dormant accounts regardless of processing billions in on-chain exercise.
Corporate data immediately join Zedcex to Babak Morteza Zanjani, an Iranian sanctions-evasion financier beforehand sanctioned by the US and EU in 2013 for laundering billions in oil income on behalf of regime entities, together with the IRGC, earlier than these penalties have been lifted below the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal.
Network Processed Record IRGC Flows Through Shell Structure
IRGC-linked addresses at Zedcex processed $23.7 million in 2023, representing 60% of whole exercise, earlier than surging to $619.1 million in 2024 when the IRGC share jumped to 87%.
Activity declined to $410.4 million in 2025 as non-IRGC flows elevated, lowering the corps’ share to 48%.
The two exchanges operated as a single enterprise regardless of separate UK incorporation, with each entities sharing administrators, addresses, and coordinated timing that indicated continuity slightly than independence.
Zanjani’s withdrawal from Zedxion in 2022, adopted instantly by Zedcex’s incorporation below the identical management construction and handle, instructed operational continuity slightly than separation.
After being arrested in Iran and sentenced to loss of life for embezzling hundreds of thousands from Iran’s National Oil Company, his sentence was commuted in 2024 after repaying funds, and he re-emerged publicly with proximity to regime-linked financial tasks via DotOne Holding Group, a conglomerate spanning cryptocurrency, international trade, logistics, and telecommunications.
TRM evaluation linked Zedcex wallets immediately to addresses designated by Israeli authorities as IRGC property below the Administrative Seizure Order ASO-43/25, issued in September 2025, lots of which Tether subsequently blocklisted.
Transfers carried out nearly fully in USDT on the TRON blockchain routed funds between designated IRGC addresses, offshore intermediaries, and home Iranian exchanges, together with Nobitex, Wallex, and Aban Tether.
The exchanges additionally built-in with Zedpay, a Turkey-based cellular fee processor that maintains relationships with Turkish monetary entities, together with Vepara, whose license was later suspended amid cash laundering considerations, and Vakif Katilim, a state-owned Islamic financial institution beforehand scrutinized for facilitating Iran-linked monetary exercise.
This integration prolonged capabilities past buying and selling to help fiat settlement and real-world funds for actors below sanctions constraints.
Direct Terrorist Financing Links Established On-Chain
On-chain tracing revealed that over $10 million in USDT transferred immediately from wallets dually attributable to Zedcex and the IRGC to addresses managed by Sa’id Ahmad Muhammad al-Jamal, who’s sanctioned by the US Treasury for offering materials help to the IRGC and working smuggling networks that generate income for Yemen’s Houthis.
The absence of middleman routing established Zedcex infrastructure as an lively funding rail slightly than an incidental touchpoint.
The case emerges as sanctioned nation-states increasingly dominate crypto crime statistics, with Chainalysis reporting illicit addresses acquired at the least $154 billion in 2025, marking a 162% leap from $59 billion in 2024, pushed largely by a 694% improve in sanctioned entity exercise.
Stablecoins accounted for 84% of all illicit transaction quantity, mirroring broader ecosystem developments in which these belongings supply simple cross-border transfers and decrease volatility.
Iran’s broader crypto operations have confronted mounting strain all through 2025, with flows involving Iranian entities falling to $3.7 billion between January and July, a 11% decline from 2024.
The Treasury Department sanctioned two Iranian nationals in September for coordinating over $100 million in cryptocurrency oil gross sales benefiting the IRGC, whereas Iran has explored accepting digital currencies for superior weapons gross sales, together with ballistic missiles and drones marketed via its Ministry of Defense Export Center.
Russia launched its ruble-backed A7A5 token in February 2025, processing over $93.3 billion in transactions in lower than a 12 months as Moscow equally leveraged crypto infrastructure to circumvent Western monetary restrictions.
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