Blockchain analytics company TRM Labs has identified approximately $3.84 billion in Iran-linked transactions flowing through crypto exchange CoinEx between 2019 and 2026, according to findings reported by The Block on June 25, citing TRM Labs analysis. The Seychelles-incorporated exchange, founded in 2017 and claiming more than 10 million users across more than 200 countries, served as the primary international off-ramp for funds originating from Iranian entities including the country's Central Bank. Analysts cautioned that the documented figure likely understates the true total.

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How the Pipeline Worked

The core mechanism was a two-exchange corridor. Nobitex, Iran's largest domestic crypto platform, functioned as the entry point, with Iranian rials converted into USDT stablecoins on the TRON blockchain before funds moved through intermediary wallets to CoinEx, where they could be accessed as internationally liquid assets. TRM Labs identified more than 60 distinct Iranian entities in the traced transaction set. At its height, the corridor moved $763 million in a single year. By 2024, CoinEx had overtaken Binance as Nobitex's largest foreign exchange partner, stepping into the gap left when Binance scaled back Iranian operations under regulatory pressure.

To understand CoinEx's role in context: Iran's domestic crypto ecosystem reached $7.78 billion in total transaction volume in 2025, meaning the $3.84 billion in CoinEx-routed flows represents a substantial share of the country's overall digital asset activity.

Within Iran's stablecoin market, USDT accounts for approximately 87 percent of usage compared to just 5 percent for USDC, according to SSRN analysis. A related but separate figure shows that USDT on the TRON blockchain specifically accounts for approximately 72 percent of Iranian stablecoin flows. TRON's low transaction fees and high throughput make it practical for high-volume, cross-border transfers. The dominance of USDT over USDC also reflects a compliance architecture difference: Tether's systems have demonstrated measurably weaker prevention of Iranian-linked flows than Circle's, making USDT the path of least resistance for sanctioned activity. That same combination of properties, dollar stability, minimal fees, and no bank account required, is what makes TRON-based USDT popular for everyday remittances across South Asia and Africa.

The transactions were not limited to civilian capital flight. TRM Labs also identified flows connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and to entities under existing Russian sanctions, which moves the case beyond gray-area civilian use into territory with direct national security implications.

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Where Enforcement Stands

As of today, CoinEx has not been formally designated by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). That status could change. The TRM Labs findings land 23 days after OFAC sanctioned four Iranian exchanges on June 2: Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. Those designations came as part of Operation Economic Fury, a U.S. enforcement campaign launched in March 2025 that has now frozen more than $1 billion in Iranian-linked crypto assets, including a single $344 million USDT seizure on the TRON blockchain in April 2026.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the overarching enforcement rationale in a statement issued alongside the June 2 designations: "While Iran's economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country."

Ari Redbord, TRM Labs' Global Head of Policy, told CoinDesk in February that the current enforcement strategy targets infrastructure rather than individual wallets: "By the time an address is sanctioned it has very little operational value. Rebuilding functioning financial infrastructure is much harder." CoinEx, in this framing, is precisely the kind of infrastructure regulators are now focused on.

CoinEx has since announced tightened KYC (know-your-customer) requirements and restricted Iranian user access. Analysts describe these steps as reactive, implemented years after the bulk of the identified transactions occurred. CoinEx did not respond to requests for comment on TRM Labs' findings. Nobitex, whose platform is central to the described funding mechanism, issued a statement to Reuters in April 2026 denying direct government connections and claiming that any illicit funds moved through its platform without management approval.

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What This Means for Users Outside the United States

The practical risk for retail users in South Asia and Africa is account disruption if enforcement widens to include CoinEx itself. USDT-TRON is the dominant stablecoin rail across both regions. Indian exchanges face growing scrutiny from the country's Financial Intelligence Unit, which has previously issued show-cause notices to offshore platforms lacking local compliance registration. The CoinEx findings give Indian regulators additional justification to demand sanctions-screening disclosures from any offshore exchange serving Indian users.

In Pakistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and hosts a substantial Iranian-linked diaspora, the FATF grey-listing experience has made regulators acutely sensitive to AML citations. Pakistani VASP framework oversight could face pressure to address any domestic exposure to the identified flows.

Across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, where TRON-based USDT is widely used for remittances and OTC trade, the situation creates compliance obligations for local fintech operators and exchanges that may have unknowingly interacted with Iran-linked wallets. A further structural risk for the region is de-risking: correspondent banks and international payment processors cutting ties with African financial institutions that appear connected to sanctioned flows. That pattern has already curtailed financial access across the continent and could intensify if CoinEx exposure surfaces in domestic transaction chains.

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What Comes Next

The sequencing of enforcement actions points toward continued escalation. OFAC moved from wallet-level designations to full exchange designations with its June 2, 2026 action targeting Nobitex and three other Iranian platforms. The findings reported by The Block, drawing on TRM Labs analysis, extend that chain to a globally operating platform with millions of retail users outside the United States.

A directly applicable precedent is the Zedcex and Zedxion case: two UK-registered exchanges that processed approximately $1 billion in IRGC-linked stablecoin flows and received the first-ever OFAC designation of an IRGC-linked digital asset exchange. That action established that OFAC is prepared to designate exchanges incorporated in Western jurisdictions when the underlying flows serve Iranian military or intelligence entities. CoinEx's exposure profile is structurally similar.

Users on CoinEx in any jurisdiction should verify the current status of the exchange with their own legal and compliance teams before treating it as a long-term custodial option. For retail users in emerging markets particularly, assets held on exchanges incorporated in jurisdictions without robust domestic regulatory frameworks carry regulatory tail risk that onshore or regionally licensed platforms do not.