CoinEx Denies ‘Knowledge’ of Aiding Sanctioned Iran Crypto Market in $3.8 Billion Disconnect

CoinEx denied allegations on Thursday that the Seychelles-based crypto exchange knowingly served as a conduit for billions of dollars in sanctioned Iranian funds, pushing back against a report from The Wall Street Journal that leaned heavily on analysis from TRM Labs.

The crypto analytics firm published a blog post drawing connections between CoinEx and more than 60 Iranian platforms, including Nobitex, which was slapped with U.S. sanctions earlier this month for allegedly facilitating terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, and ransomware payments.

For years, CoinEx has shared a close connection with the platform known as Iran’s largest crypto exchange, gaining on-chain exposure to Iranian military entities while also serving as Nobitex’s “single largest external counterparty,” according to TRM.

CoinEx pinned its defense on neutrality, asserting that it operates as a global exchange that serves ordinary users worldwide, with no official ties to Iranian authorities or sanctioned entities.

“We firmly reject any narrative that conflates ordinary user activity with state-level sanctions evasion, and any inference that equates on-chain fund flows with platform knowledge of, support for, or participation in illicit activity,” CoinEx said in an X post.

Over the past seven years, more than $3.84 billion has flowed between CoinEx and a mining pool owned by the exchange’s parent company, ViaBTC, which TRM said its data shows. The firm described CoinEx as “the single biggest lifeline for Iran’s cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

Because CoinEx, which debuted nearly a decade ago in Hong Kong, has transaction exposure to more than 60 entities operating in Iran, TRM argued that “this connectivity is unlikely to be independent market behavior.”

On top of that, TRM alleged that CoinEx’s platform was subject to a year-long money laundering scheme that ended this month, in which the exchange received $67 million derived from Iran’s central bank through a web of transfers extending across several blockchains.

On X, CoinEx said that it moved quickly after Nobitex was sanctioned to strengthen identification of Iranian users, implement comprehensive geo-fencing, detect suspicious transactions, and ramp up “action against accounts using the platform for illicit activity.”

While recent reports suggest that the Iranian government has accepted Bitcoin as payment for transiting the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil supplies once flowed, the U.S. government has been proactive, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Days before Nobitex was sanctioned alongside three other exchanges, Bessent said the U.S. had seized $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency from entities linked to Iran. He posited at the time that some individuals “might not have realized that their wallet had been grabbed.”