Overview
- On Thursday, reporting based on TRM Labs analysis and the Wall Street Journal said roughly $3.84 billion in crypto flows tied to Iranian addresses moved through CoinEx since 2019.
- Investigators traced about $67 million from two wallets linked to Iran’s Central Bank into CoinEx using multi‑chain layering and cross‑chain bridges and found portions of that trail connected to assets stolen in the $1.5 billion Bybit hack.
- TRM found CoinEx became the largest foreign counterparty to Iran’s Nobitex by 2024 and that more than 60 Iranian platforms routed roughly 5–10% of their volume through CoinEx, a pattern TRM says looks systematic rather than incidental.
- CoinEx denied knowingly facilitating sanctioned actors, said on Thursday it was exiting Iran‑related exposure, tightened KYC and screening, and reportedly rotated hot wallets after U.S. Treasury sanctions on four Iranian exchanges on June 2 led volumes with Iran to collapse.
- The case shows how public on‑chain analytics now feed enforcement pressure, creates reputational and regulatory risk for offshore exchanges, and reduces access to crypto for ordinary Iranian users who relied on these corridors for savings and cross‑border transfers.