Treasury Presses Binance Over Iran Sanctions, BNB Drops

The U.S. Treasury has pressed crypto exchange Binance to adopt stronger compliance measures after reports that Iranian actors continued moving large sums of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. The exchange’s native token, BNB, dropped to $641.45 after the news.

The pressure comes as part of “Operation Economic Fury,” a campaign launched in April 2026 to disrupt Iran’s financial networks. In recent weeks the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned crypto wallets reportedly tied to Iran’s central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and coordinated with the stablecoin issuer Tether to freeze about $344 million in USDT on the Tron network.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated Iran conducted roughly $7.78 billion in crypto activity in 2025, with wallets linked to the IRGC receiving more than $3 billion. Treasury officials say the enforcement actions aim to restrict Tehran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate funds.

Treasury officials have told Binance to implement additional compliance safeguards after intelligence and reporting flagged ongoing large-value crypto flows linked to Iran despite sanctions and internet restrictions. The renewed scrutiny has placed the world’s largest exchange by trading volume back under heightened U.S. enforcement attention.

BNB fell to $641.45 as traders reacted to the news. Market participants and analysts have warned that tougher requirements on Binance could affect liquidity on major trading pairs, stablecoin usage and institutional confidence across the crypto market.

Binance has faced multi-year investigations into anti-money-laundering and sanctions controls. In 2023 the company pleaded guilty to criminal violations tied to sanctions and AML failures, agreed to pay a $4.3 billion settlement and accepted independent compliance monitors overseen by the Department of Justice and FinCEN.

Earlier this year reporting suggested more than $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto activity passed through Binance-related channels. Binance denied sanctions violations and requested corrections. Binance executive Richard Teng posted: “The record must be clear. No sanctions violations were found, no investigators were fired for raising concerns, and Binance continues to meet its regulatory commitments. We’ve asked for corrections to recent reporting.”

Treasury officials have not publicly detailed the specific compliance measures they are demanding, and Binance has not issued a new public comment on the latest requests. Observers and compliance experts expect demands for enhanced transaction monitoring, stricter controls on deposits and withdrawals tied to sanctioned jurisdictions, closer oversight of stablecoin flows and faster cooperation from issuers when suspect activity is detected.

Legal and crypto compliance specialists say regulators may expand enforcement beyond Binance to other offshore exchanges and infrastructure providers that facilitate high-volume or opaque transfers tied to sanctioned actors. The Treasury has indicated the campaign will continue to target networks it says enable sanctions evasion.