The Wall Street Journal reported in an investigative article that Iran’s regime has used the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx in recent years as one of its most important channels for connecting to the global cryptocurrency market and circumventing U.S. sanctions.
CoinEx denied the allegations, saying it has never knowingly provided services to entities affiliated with Iran’s regime or to sanctioned individuals.
Citing blockchain data analysis by TRM Labs, the Wall Street Journal reported that entities linked to Iran’s regime have conducted more than $3.84 billion in cryptocurrency transactions through CoinEx since 2019. According to the newspaper, the exchange has become one of the Iranian regime’s primary channels for accessing the global cryptocurrency market and evading U.S. economic sanctions.
According to the report, blockchain experts began their investigation with two wallets attributed to the Central Bank of Iran’s regime. The analysis found that some of the assets in those wallets originated from cryptocurrency stolen from the Bybit exchange in an attack attributed to North Korean hackers, during which approximately $1.5 billion in digital assets was stolen.
Repeated Transfers and Conversion of Digital Assets
According to the Wall Street Journal, after entering wallets attributed to the Central Bank of Iran’s regime, these funds were routed through a complex chain of transfers across multiple blockchain networks, repeated cryptocurrency conversions, and the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols before ultimately reaching accounts at CoinEx.
TRM Labs’ analysis indicates that approximately $67 million of these assets were ultimately transferred to CoinEx deposit accounts and then to the exchange’s treasury wallet. After being mixed with other deposits and withdrawals, the funds could no longer be traced.
The newspaper wrote that CoinEx, founded in 2017 by former Tencent engineer Haipo Yang and now based in the Seychelles, has in recent years replaced Binance as the primary foreign partner of Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
According to TRM Labs’ analysis, more than $763 million in cryptocurrency was transferred between Nobitex and CoinEx during the past year alone.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the volume of asset transfers from Nobitex to CoinEx exceeded transfers in the opposite direction, suggesting that Iranian users rely on CoinEx as a gateway to the global cryptocurrency market and exchanges such as Binance.
Earlier this month, the U.S. government also sanctioned Nobitex on allegations of supporting Iran’s regime.
The newspaper also reported financial transactions between CoinEx wallets and the Zedcex exchange, which has been linked to convicted economic criminal Babak Zanjani.
Zanjani has previously described himself as a strategist for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) sanctions-evasion operations.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Zanjani and Zedcex in January. However, the Wall Street Journal emphasized that all of the transactions referenced in its report took place before those sanctions were imposed.
Researchers estimate that about 13% of Iran’s population owns cryptocurrency assets and that the country’s cryptocurrency market was valued at between $8 billion and $10 billion in 2025.
The report also referred to the recent war and the widespread internet shutdown in Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal, although many Iranian users lost access to CoinEx during the internet shutdown, TRM Labs’ analysis shows that the average value of transactions between CoinEx and Nobitex increased during the same period. The company said this could indicate greater use of the route by larger actors, although it stressed that this conclusion is not definitive.
In response to the report, CoinEx denied all allegations that it had cooperated with Iran’s regime or facilitated sanctions evasion.
The exchange also criticized TRM Labs’ analytical methodology, saying that assets passing through a platform do not necessarily mean that the platform was aware of or involved in illegal activities.
The company also announced that it will shut down its Persian-language social media accounts.
