CoinEx denies claims it served as $3.84 billion gateway to sanctioned Iranian crypto firms

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said CoinEx served as a gateway for the crypto sector in Iran, having traced more than $3.84 billion in flows between the exchange and sanctioned Iranian entities in the last seven years.

TRM Labs said CoinEx became the single biggest trading partner of Iran's largest crypto exchange Nobitex, which accounted for around $2.7 billion of the flows, according to a report published Wednesday .

CoinEx had direct transaction exposure with more than 60 Iranian crypto platforms, according to TRM Labs' analysis, which argued that this patterns suggested a coordinated relationship rather than organic market activity.

TRM Labs identified CoinEx exposure to several terrorist-linked entities, such as $6 million in transactions involving wallets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and $374,000 of exposure associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned an array of Iranian crypto exchanges as part of its campaign against the country's government at the start of this month, including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, all of which are cited in TRM Labs' report.

Seychelles-registered CoinEx rejected the report's findings , saying it has "never established any commercial relationship with Iranian government-related entities, Iranian domestic exchanges," or "provided any form of active assistance to Iranian government agencies, Revolutionary Guard-related entities, or other sanctioned parties."

"Blockchain transactions are open, cross-platform, and traceable by nature. The fact that funds have passed through a platform onchain does not mean that the platform was aware of, supported, or participated in the related fund activity," CoinEx said in a statement on Thursday. "Data from different third-party blockchain analytics platforms varies significantly, and data from any single platform should not be treated as definitive."

CoinEx added that it began a review and exit process from all Iran-related exposure following the sanctioning of Iranian exchange by the U.S.

In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.

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