Cryptocurrency exchange allegedly did business with individual now blacklisted by authorities just prior to designation.

A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal has unearthed a trail of Iran-linked cryptocurrency transactions worth billions of dollars, facilitated by the prominent crypto exchange Binance. At the center of this controversy is Babak Zanjani, a wealthy Iranian businessman with a troubled past, who utilized Binance to execute transactions totaling $850 million in 2024 and 2025. Notably, the majority of these transactions were conducted through a single account, which raised red flags on multiple occasions, yet remained active for at least 15 months.

Zanjani's dealings with Binance were extensive, with records indicating that he transferred $107 million from his digital wallets to Binance accounts in 2025 alone. Furthermore, foreign law enforcement agencies have detected ongoing transactions involving Iran-linked entities via Binance accounts, even in 2026. The WSJ report also reveals that in the two years leading up to the US/Israel conflict with Iran, Binance enabled the transfer of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency to entities tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In response to concerns over its compliance, US Treasury officials met with Binance executives in March to discuss the company's adherence to its monitorship agreement, established as part of a 2023 plea deal. However, according to former compliance employees, Binance executives attempted to conceal their operations from monitors, fearing that increased scrutiny would hinder the company's growth.

Babak Zanjani's history is marked by controversy, having been sentenced to death in 2016 for embezzling billions of dollars from Iran's National Oil Company. His sentence was later commuted in 2024, and he went on to secure a lucrative government contract for his conglomerate, Dotone Group. Zanjani has been blacklisted by the US since 2013 and was sanctioned in January 2026, along with his UK-registered digital asset firms, Zedcex and Zedxion, for financially supporting the Iranian regime and facilitating money laundering.

The WSJ report alleges that Zedcex received funds from Iranian oil sales, which were then transferred to IRGC-linked digital wallets via Binance's corporate account. Between 2024 and 2025, Zedcex conducted transactions totaling $830 million, triggering multiple internal alerts at Binance. Despite this, the company claims that it did not process transactions from sanctioned entities and that it took all necessary steps to ensure compliance.

Binance has vehemently denied the WSJ's allegations, with CEO Richard Teng stating that the reporting contains "fundamental inaccuracies" about the company's commitment to compliance. However, the WSJ's investigation has prompted a US investigation into Binance's activities, with Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal demanding information on the company's role in facilitating sanction-dodging transactions to Iranian and Russian entities. Binance's history of non-compliance has resulted in significant fines, including a $4.3 billion penalty in 2023 for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering and sanctions checks.