$850 million in Iran-linked transactions may have passed through Binance — WSJ
Transactions totaling approximately $850 million linked to Iranian entities may have passed through the Binance cryptocurrency exchange over a two-year period.
According to The Wall Street Journal, this involves a network run by Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, which may have used the exchange to circumvent sanctions. According to the publication, some of the transactions may be linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and payments for Iranian oil via Chinese intermediaries. Binance denies these allegations, claiming inaccuracies in the report.
According to the publication, most of these transactions went through a single trading account. Experts who investigated Iran-linked crypto wallets also uncovered other cash flows that could have been used to circumvent sanctions.
According to the WSJ, Binance has become one of the key channels for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated entities to circumvent economic restrictions. According to estimates by WSJ sources and experts, a significant portion of the funds passing through such accounts may have been directed toward supporting the Iranian regime and its military structures, including the IRGC. The article states that some of the transfers were linked to payments by Chinese counterparties for Iranian oil.
Binance denies the allegations. A representative of the exchange told the WSJ that the information is inaccurate, that Binance did not allow transactions with individuals or digital wallets that were under sanctions at the time of the transactions, and took the necessary measures after identifying such connections. According to the company representative, based on Binance’s data, the vast majority of the transactions in question “have no connection to the Binance platform.”
This is not the first WSJ report on Binance’s possible role in Iranian sanctions-evasion schemes. In March, the newspaper reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating whether Iran had used Binance to evade sanctions and finance affiliated armed groups. Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against the WSJ, denying the publication’s claims. In 2023, Binance admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions rules, agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine, and placed itself under enhanced U.S. oversight. The exchange’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, served a prison sentence and was pardoned by President Donald Trump last October.
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