US sanctions Iranian exchanges, with a link in Poland
On 7 August 2026 the US Treasury sanctions office OFAC placed the exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether on its sanctions list, together with a network of companies in Georgia, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. For European users, what matters most is what this does to withdrawals and freezes.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, the sanctions arm of the US Treasury Department, added two crypto exchanges to its sanctions list on 7 August 2026: Shelbit and Iranian platform Aban Tether. Alongside them came Siavash Kayvanpour and a string of companies tied to him in Georgia, Poland and the United Arab Emirates.
According to OFAC, wallets linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard sent more than 1 million dollars (roughly €875,000) to Shelbit, while more than 2 million dollars (roughly €1.75 million) moved the other way, from Shelbit back to those same wallets. Wallets under Kayvanpour's control sent over 2 million dollars to Nobitex, the largest exchange in Iran. Aban Tether, the agency says, processed millions in transactions with previously sanctioned Iranian platforms, among them Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex.
This is the fourth round this year
The move does not stand alone. January brought Zedcex and Zedxion, June brought Nobitex and others, and July brought the crypto wallets of the Iranian central bank. In July, Tether froze roughly 131 million dollars (about €114.6 million) sitting in those sanctioned wallets. The pattern is plain enough: first the exchanges, then the intermediaries, then the stablecoin issuers who can technically freeze the funds.
Why a Polish office matters
The presence of companies in Poland makes this more than American news. An OFAC designation formally binds US parties, but in practice it reaches a great deal further: any exchange that processes dollar transactions or has US counterparties screens against these lists. A European provider that skips that step cuts itself off from its own banking relationships.
The European Union is running a separate track. Its July sanctions package placed fourteen crypto platforms outside Russia on the European list. The two systems do not overlap completely, and you only notice the gap once a withdrawal stalls.
What this means for you
The odds that you do business with Aban Tether yourself are slim. The odds that you receive crypto which once passed through a network like this are rather less slim, and that is where it can reach you. Sanctions screening looks at the history of an address, not only at its most recent transaction.
If larger amounts come in from counterparties you do not know, keep a record of where they came from. When a withdrawal stalls, that is the first question any compliance department asks. Answer it with a transaction overview and it is usually a matter of days; fail to answer it and it can take weeks.
For larger amounts, use platforms with a European authorisation. Not because they screen less — they screen more — but because a dispute gives you a competent authority to turn to. And keep your transaction history. It is the same advice as for your tax return, and here it serves a second purpose.
Sources: OFAC (designation 7 August 2026), US Department of the Treasury, CoinDesk (7 August 2026). Last checked: 8 August 2026.