🔻 New U.S. sanctions target Iran’s Bitbank company and digital assets

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has directed its latest sanctions at parts of Iran’s financial system.

In a statement, the ministry said it imposed new sanctions on the company “Bitbank,” which is an important investment institution in the field of digital assets and is considered one of the institutions owned by Babak Zanjani.

According to the ministry’s statement, today’s sanctions list also includes Bitbank’s developer company, namely the e-commerce company “PishTaz Simorgh,” as well as three of Mr. Zanjani’s associates named “Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein,” “Mohammad Mehdi Zaker Hossein,” and “Sayyid Adil Haydari.”

The U.S. Treasury described the entities and individuals sanctioned today as “key components of infrastructure for evading sanctions through digital assets.”

Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, said: “Today’s sanctions against Iran’s digital asset infrastructure clearly show that efforts to finance the Iranian government using cryptocurrencies are not, in our view, out of sight.”

He also introduced these sanctions as part of Iran’s “economic isolation operations” campaign.