Reuters reported Friday that leading crypto exchange Binance had processed about $8 billion worth of transactions involving Iranian entities since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions meant to isolate the Islamic nation from the global monetary system, citing blockchain data from Chainalysis.
Binance Processed $8B for Iranian Entities.
Per data obtained from blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, nearly all of the funds worth $7.8 billion occurred between Binance and Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, which gives investors guidelines on how to bypass sanctions on its website.
The data revealed that three-quarters of the Iranian funds between the exchanges were made via Tron (TRX), the native cryptocurrency of the Tron blockchain, which Nobitex recommends to clients for anonymous transactions without “endangering assets due to sanctions.”
While the majority of the transactions were made in TRX, other crypto assets used include bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC).
In 2018, the Donald Trump administration reimposed trade sanctions on Iran and prohibited any U.S. entity or citizen from selling goods and services to Iranian nationals, entities, or institutions.
The sanction was imposed in response to the Islamic nation’s nuclear program and support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestine Islamic Jihad, considered terrorist organisations by the United States.
According to Chainalysis, Binance has processed trades worth $1.05 billion directly from Nobitex and other Iranian exchanges since 2021.
Binance Responds
In response to the latest report, Binance’s spokesperson Patrick Hillmann said that the exchange is not a registered entity in the U.S.
“Binance.com is not a U.S. company, unlike other platforms that have exposure to these same U.S. sanctioned entities. However, we have taken proactive steps to limit our exposure to the Iranian marketplace.”
Despite this, the Chainalysis data showed that Binance U.S., the American affiliate of Binance, processed $1.5 million worth of crypto transactions from Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, and Tether Land.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Binance has been in the news over its ties with Iran. In July, Reuters revealed that the crypto exchange was still serving clients in Iran despite sanctions and that its popularity in the Islamic state was known inside the company.
Binance also responded that it strictly follows international sanction rules and uses some “banking grade tools” to prevent sanctioned entities from using its platform.
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