Blumenthal, a top Democrat on an investigative panel within the Senate Homeland Security Committee, opened a Binance inquiry last month.
Russia, Iran and North Korea expanded their use of stablecoins, hacked funds and state-linked exchanges to move more than $100 billion onchain to evade international sanctions.
Outflows reportedly spiked 700% on Nobitex, the largest Iranian crypto exchange, which processed about $7.2 billion in transactions in 2025.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal has opened an inquiry into crypto giant Binance following reports of potential sanctions violations.
The Treasury’s OFAC has sanctioned the Russian company Operation Zero following the guilty plea of a man who admitted to stealing software.
The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Fortune all reported that investigators had been let go after identifying sanctions-violating transactions.
An Australian national was said to sell cyber tools designed for the U.S. government and its allies to a Russian company known as Operation Zero.
Bitpapa, Garantex and ABCeX were among the cryptocurrency exchanges linked to Russian-tied transactions circumventing Western evasions.
One exchange has processed at least $11 billion in crypto from an office in the same building previously occupied by sanctioned exchange Garantex.
The measures are intended to prevent the emergence of “heirs” to the Russian crypto exchange Garantex, which the EU sanctioned last year.
The sanctions mark the first time digital asset platforms were sanctioned directly by the U.S. government in relation to the Iranian government's actions.
The exchanges were accused of facilitating transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and are linked to an Iranian businessman convicted of embezzlement.
TRM Labs estimates that illicit crypto volume surged to an all-time high of $158 billion in 2025, representing just 1.2% of total crypto volumes.
While the increasingly professional bad guys' crypto rocketed to $158 billion in 2025, it's still a decreasing share of overall digital assets activity.
The U.S. Treasury tied Wedding’s network to a web of sanctioned crypto wallets across five blockchains, pointing to a laundering operation.
Elliptic traced more than $500 million in USDT tied to Iran’s central bank, suggesting the stablecoin was used to manage foreign-exchange pressures and build a “sanctions-proof” alternative to dollar banking.
Chainalysis said Iran’s crypto ecosystem topped $7.78 billion in 2025 as IRGC-linked activity grew and BTC withdrawals surged during unrest.
Prospective customers could purchase weapons such as missiles, tanks and drones using crypto, according to a government website.
Iran has already been utilizing crypto to evade Western sanctions for years, according to findings from the US Treasury.
The Treasury Department sanctioned eight individuals and two entities accused of using crypto and shell companies to funnel millions into Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
Canada's FINTRAC said the exchange failed to report thousands of high-risk crypto transactions tied to darknet markets and Iranian transfers.
As the Justice Department pursues Prince Group's leader, the Treasury Department sanctioned the company while also severing Huione from the U.S. finance.
The accused is said to have forced people to work in Cambodian compounds part of large-scale crypto scam network.
Monetary Authority of Singapore spokesperson tells CoinDesk that entities not regulated as financial institutions are not subject to sanctions measures.
Singapore made a bold move in its usual foreign policy of neutrality by sanctioning Promsvyazbank, a bank associated with the ruble stablecoin issuer A7A5, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But A7A5 was able to legally
make an appearance at Token2049 because the conference is organized by a Hong Kong entity.
Binance agreed to a compliance monitorship as part of its plea deal with the DOJ in 2023 over money-laundering and sanctions violations.
Israel flagged 187 crypto addresses allegedly linked to the IRGC. Elliptic says the wallets received $1.5B in USDT, though not all may belong to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a cybercriminal network across Southeast Asia tied to crypto investment scams.
U.S. officials accused Garantex, Grinex, A7A5 token issuers and executives of laundering ransomware proceeds and evading sanctions.
In 2023, Roman Storm was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and sanctions violations for operating Tornado Cash.