In its press release, Treasury described the action as the first designation of an IRGC-linked digital asset exchange, underscoring the growing role of cryptocurrency platforms in Iran’s sanctions evasion and proxy financing ecosystem. OFAC also announced new sanctions targeting Iranian officials responsible for the regime’s brutal crackdown on its own people. Among those designated is Babak Morteza Zanjani, a notorious Iranian financier long tied to some of the regime’s most significant corruption and sanctions evasion schemes.
TRM Labs analysis previously surfaced Zedcex and Zedxion as UK-registered front companies that facilitated stablecoin flows linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Today’s action represents a significant disruption of that network. As TRM detailed in our reporting on the Zedcex and Zedxion network, the corporate and on-chain connections linking Zanjani to exchange-branded stablecoin infrastructure underscore a critical point: this activity is not opportunistic crypto abuse. The same actors and facilitation structures that historically moved oil revenue and sanctions-evasion flows through front companies and shadow intermediaries are now reconstituting in digital asset form, leveraging offshore exchanges and stablecoin liquidity to operate at scale.
Zanjani has longstanding connections to the broader Zedcex ecosystem, underscoring his enduring role as a financial facilitator for the Iranian state and its sanctions-evasion infrastructure. The Zedcex and Zedxion network represents one of the clearest observed examples of this evolution: exchange-branded stablecoin infrastructure embedded directly within an IRGC-linked ecosystem, illustrating how sanctioned actors are no longer just using crypto, but increasingly seeking to operate and control the platforms themselves. Zedcex Exchange Ltd and Zedxion Exchange Ltd were designated by OFAC for facilitating stablecoin flows tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
TRM Labs analysis linked the two UK-registered entities to roughly USD 1 billion in IRGC-related activity, primarily using USDT on TRON. Treasury described Zanjani as a criminal investor who was freed from imprisonment in order to launder money for the regime and has since provided financial backing for major projects supporting the IRGC and the Iranian government more broadly. This action marks a major disruption of IRGC-linked stablecoin financing activity.
It also reflects the next phase of crypto sanctions enforcement: identifying, attributing, and disrupting illicit financial infrastructure before it becomes normalized at scale. TRM will continue supporting government agencies, financial institutions, and digital asset businesses in detecting and disrupting sanctions evasion networks operating through stablecoins, exchanges, and offshore crypto infrastructure.
Zedcex-linked activity did not exist in isolation. TRM’s on-chain tracing showed that funds routed through offshore Zedcex infrastructure later interacted with Iran’s domestic crypto ecosystem, including large local exchanges and payment services. This pattern reflects a recurring feature of Iran-linked financial activity. Retail crypto usage and regime-aligned transactions often coexist on the same rails, creating a blurred operational environment that complicates enforcement, compliance segmentation, and risk visibility.
The same stablecoin infrastructure that supports everyday economic activity can also be leveraged by sanctioned networks moving value under state direction. The activity was conducted overwhelmingly in USDT on the TRON blockchain, a network that is frequently leveraged in sanctions-evasion contexts because of its low transaction costs, high transaction throughput, deep broker liquidity, and widespread regional adoption. Across 2023 through 2025, TRM observed approximately USD 1 billion in flows linked to IRGC-associated activity routed through Zedcex infrastructure, underscoring the scale at which exchange-branded stablecoin rails can be used to support sanctioned networks.
At its peak, IRGC-linked flows accounted for the majority of observed activity through the exchange network. Rather than functioning primarily as a retail trading venue, Zedcex operated as a stablecoin clearing hub embedded within a broader sanctions-evasion ecosystem. OFAC’s designation of Zedcex and Zedxion marks an inflection point in the crypto sanctions landscape.
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