Iran has been cut off from the US money system for years. It still moves money.
A new Reuters report shows how. It also shows who is running the rails.
Nobitex is Iran's largest crypto exchange. It was started in 2018 by brothers Ali and Mohammad.
They set up the firm under the name Aghamir. Their real name is Kharrazi.
The family is one of Iran's top dynasties. Their dad started Hezbollah inside Iran.
Their aunt is wed to the brother of the new supreme leader. The brothers chose not to use the real family name.
Most folks did not know their tie to the top of the regime.
Reuters and three crypto data firms tracked flagged funds moving through Nobitex. The war that started this year did not stop the flow.
Each firm gave its own count. The numbers vary:
Even the high end is just 3% of the $11 billion in total volume Nobitex has moved. That gap is what makes this a real risk and not a fluke.
Most of the flow is from plain Iranians buying crypto to dodge a falling rial.
Sen. Warren is the top Dem on the Senate Banking panel. She called the report "a flashing red light."
The crypto world, she said, has too few rules. That is why bad money flows can run at scale.
Nobitex is not on the US sanctions list. That is true even after a 2022 Reuters report.
That report said Binance moved $7.8 billion for the firm. It is also true after the US Treasury hit a firm tied to its former chair.
That firm shipped Iranian drones to Russia. On April 28, the US issued new sanctions.
The new list hit what it called Iran's "shadow banking" setup. Nobitex was not on that list.
That gap is the story. The world's most cut-off rival has built a clean front door to global crypto.
Western cops have not closed it. The heat now shifts to the rest of the crypto world.
Rules teams at every major firm will look harder at Iran-linked flow. US watchdogs will be asked why the firm still has a foot in the global rails.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sent to prison in 2024 for US money laws. Trump pardoned him last year.
The next test is not whether crypto can dodge sanctions. It is whether the firms that keep doing it will pay for it.
