The US Treasury handed its sanctions office a much longer reach on Monday. Five new sectoral determinations, issued under Executive Order 13902, let the Office of Foreign Assets Control target any foreign person operating in or serving Iran’s digital asset, gold, aviation, shipping and technology sectors. That is a significant expansion beyond the financial and petroleum industries already covered.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent branded the package “Operation Economic Outcast” and called it “Economic D-Day,” saying the aim was “to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Decrypt reported.
For crypto, the implications are immediate. Any foreign individual or company determined to operate in Iran’s digital asset sector, or to provide services supporting it, is now sanctionable under EO 13902. Location does not matter. Designated parties’ US-linked property must be blocked. Foreign banks facilitating significant transactions for them could lose access to US correspondent accounts. Exchanges and over-the-counter desks handling Iranian-counterparty flows anywhere in the world face sharply higher compliance stakes.
Treasury said Iran “increasingly turns to cryptocurrency as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion,” pointing to transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and regime insiders. The determinations name roughly 60 entities, individuals and vessels across nuclear, missile, cyber and oil networks, per Cointelegraph’s account of the press release.
Two designations carry direct crypto links. The bigger one is Ivan Obukhov, a Ukrainian national based in the United Arab Emirates. Since 2023, Obukhov processed more than $100 million in cryptocurrency payments to facilitate oil sales on behalf of the IRGC’s Quds Force, according to Treasury. His UAE-based company, Foscom FZE, was designated alongside him. Obukhov has also brokered “shadow fleet” vessels for years, Decrypt reported.
The second is Arman Kahzadian. He is part of a group of cyber actors directed by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and focused on digital-asset thefts. Treasury said Kahzadian took control of a wallet holding more than $30,000 in bitcoin in the summer of 2023. He was designated under cyber sanctions authority rather than the new sectoral determination.
This crypto determination did not come out of nowhere. In January, OFAC sanctioned UK-registered Zedcex and Zedxion, the first Iran-related designations of digital asset exchanges. On June 3, Treasury hit four Iranian exchanges including Nobitex, Iran’s largest. Bessent said the US has seized nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iranian exchanges and wallets. On August 7, OFAC added Shelbit and Aban Tether, alleging they facilitated a combined $5 million in digital assets connected to Iran. Earlier this month, Treasury also designated firms accepting bitcoin in exchange for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is what is genuinely new. It is not the naming of a bad actor. It is the standing authority to sweep in anyone Treasury determines is operating in Iran’s crypto sector, with no need to tie each target to a specific sanctioned entity.
Tehran waved it off. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Washington “desperate” and said the measures amounted to “the same movie they keep playing over and over again.” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said any country that takes part in sanctions against Iran “will be regarded as an enemy.” The Iranian rial fell to a record open-market low of 2.02 million to the dollar on Monday, Decrypt reported, citing Time.
What remains unclear is the exact number of designations: Decrypt put it at “nearly 60” or “60 or so.” Also open are the specific deadlines Treasury said it gave individual countries to wind down Iran-related activity before secondary sanctions follow. Treasury has not named any exchange or OTC desk beyond the two individuals as immediately affected under the digital-asset determination.
