Overview
- On July 7 the Office of Foreign Assets Control revoked General License X and issued a narrow replacement, GL X1, that allows only limited orderly wind-down activity and expires on July 17.
- Treasury announced on July 14 that it froze more than $130 million in wallets tied to the Central Bank of Iran and sanctioned over 50 individuals, firms, and vessels linked to the Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani network.
- The license revocation bars new transactions in Iranian-origin crude and petrochemicals from July 7 and forced traders and shippers to hurriedly close or unwind linked positions ahead of the July 17 deadline.
- Crypto exchanges, over-the-counter desks, and stablecoin issuers now face heightened compliance risk because they must screen counterparties and blockchain flows for ties to the newly blocked parties and vessels.
- U.S. officials said the moves target a long-standing Iranian ‘shadow fleet’ and hidden value chains that use ship-to-ship transfers, falsified papers, and digital assets to keep oil exports flowing, mainly to buyers in China, which could reshape enforcement and market routes for the months ahead.