Iran’s Strait of Hormuz toll booth ran through a bitcoin exchange, U.S. says
60-second summary
U.S. Treasury sanctions Tehran‑based exchange BitBank for funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and processing toll payments from vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s key oil chokepoint. The move highlights growing crypto misuse in sanction evasion, prompting tighter financial scrutiny and potentially dampening illicit digital‑currency flows in the region.
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned BitBank, a Tehran exchange it says moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin to the Revolutionary Guards and handled payments collected from ships buying passage through the world’s most important oil chokepoint.