U.S. Treasury Sanctioned BitBank, the Exchange Behind Iran's Bitcoin Tolls on Hormuz Ships

The US Treasury just sanctioned the Iranian crypto exchange that has been collecting Bitcoin tolls on ships passing Hormuz.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated BitBank on 17 September 2026 in press release sb0632, naming the platform a priority venture of already designated financier Babak Zanjani. The listing is an OFAC blocking action under Executive Order 13902, part of Operation Economic Outcast. It is not a move against Japan's regulated bitbank, inc.

The same day Treasury also designated Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, which built BitBank's software as a subsidiary of Dot One, plus Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein (Pishtaz Simorgh's CEO), and Seyed Adel Heidari.

Since June, Treasury says, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to move payments collected on a shipping safe-passage Bitcoin scheme through the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranian regime. Between June and July, the release says, Zanjani used BitBank to send hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That dollar figure is Treasury's allegation, not an independently audited on-chain total.

Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast on 24 August 2026. US property of the designated persons is blocked, entities they own 50 percent or more of are blocked, and counterparties face secondary-sanctions risk. The same Outcast campaign already produced Treasury's Golden Global Bank designation and 27 Iranian airline designations.

A prior July freeze of about $130 million in USDT sat in wallets tied to Iranian entities. That freeze is earlier action, not the BitBank listing. Iranian media talk of a roughly $10 billion Hormuz-platform aspiration is not an OFAC-confirmed collected amount.

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