The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday designated BitBank, an Iranian digital assets venture controlled by OFAC-designated Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, as part of the Trump Administration’s Operation Economic Outcast.
OFAC also designated BitBank’s developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, as well as three associates of Zanjani: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari.
According to the Treasury Department, the entities and individuals designated are key components of the Iranian regime’s infrastructure for evading sanctions through digital assets.
“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach. If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated.
The Treasury Department said that since June, OFAC-designated Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime. The Department added that the sanctions target infrastructure established by Zanjani to launder funds and transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The designations were imposed pursuant to Executive Order 13902, which targets Iran’s digital asset sector, among other sectors of the Iranian economy.
Operation Economic Outcast, dubbed “Economic D-Day," was announced by Bessent on August 24, 2026. According to the Treasury Department, the operation is intended to sever economic channels used by the Iranian regime to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terrorism.
Treasury said it is working with partners across the US government, the European Union, United Kingdom, Gulf partners, and others to target sources of revenue used by the Iranian regime. It has also warned that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on Iran’s behalf risk being cut off from the US financial system.
BitBank is an Iranian digital assets exchange which, according to Treasury, Zanjani has promoted through his social media accounts since at least 2024. The exchange has also been listed as a partner by several other companies in Zanjani’s sanctions-evasion network.
Between June and July of this year, Treasury said, Zanjani used BitBank to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC.
BitBank’s digital assets software was developed by Pishtaz Simorgh, a subsidiary of OFAC-designated Dot One Value Creation Group. OFAC designated both BitBank and Pishtaz Simorgh for operating in the digital asset sector of the Iranian economy.
Treasury previously designated multiple digital asset entities and facilitators linked to Zanjani in January and July 2026. Zanjani was sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzling millions from the OFAC-designated National Iranian Oil Company. His sentence was commuted in 2024, and by 2025 he had publicly re-emerged as a backer of economic projects linked to the Iranian regime.
According to Treasury, Zanjani subsequently built a network of digital asset companies used in part to launder money for the IRGC, alongside infrastructure and transportation ventures.
Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari are executives of Dot One whom Treasury described as key figures in Zanjani’s digital assets sanctions-evasion network.
Treasury said Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein has been involved in much of Zanjani’s sanctions-evasion activity, including Iranian oil exports and digital asset transfers, and has brokered digital asset transactions that ultimately went to the IRGC.
Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein is a Dot One manager and representative and serves as CEO of Pishtaz Simorgh, while Seyed Adel Heidari serves as vice chairman of Dot One’s board of directors.
As a result of the designations, all property and interests in property belonging to the designated or blocked persons that are in the US or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Entities owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons are likewise blocked.
Unless authorized or exempt, OFAC regulations generally prohibit transactions by US persons, or transactions within or transiting the US, involving property or interests in property belonging to designated or otherwise blocked persons.
Treasury noted that violations of US sanctions may result in civil or criminal penalties for US and foreign persons, while financial institutions and others may also face sanctions exposure for certain transactions or activities involving designated or blocked persons.