Українська
Русский
English
Iran Circumvents US Sanctions Through the Blockchains of Donald Trump, Changpeng Zhao, and Justin Sun
Iranian exchange Nobitex used the Tron and $BNB Chain blockchains to bypass Western sanctions, with at least $2.3 billion flowing through these networks. The same blockchains, developed with the involvement of crypto billionaires Justin Sun and Changpeng Zhao, also became the foundation for the Trump family’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial.
Reuters identified overlaps between the business interests of the sitting US president and the financial flows of a country against which Washington is currently engaged in war.
Billions Moved Around Sanctions
According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, Iranian exchange Nobitex has processed more than $2 billion through Tron and at least $317 million through $BNB Chain since January 2023 as part of sanctions-evasion schemes that effectively cut Iran off from the traditional financial system.
Since the beginning of the war against Iran in February, at least $22.6 million has flowed through Nobitex on $BNB Chain and another approximately $550,000 via Tron.
Both blockchains were created with the involvement of Sun and Zhao — and both men became prominent backers of World Liberty Financial, founded by Donald Trump and his family.
At the same time, there is no evidence suggesting that the Trump family was aware of Nobitex’s use of these blockchains.
The Central Bank of Iran and the IRGC
According to Elliptic and Iranian cryptocurrency specialists, the Central Bank of Iran acquired more than $500 million in Tether stablecoins via the Tron network between November 2024 and June 2025, bypassing US sanctions imposed in 2019 over alleged financing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Roughly $347 million of those funds was transferred to Nobitex. The central bank also converted assets into other cryptocurrencies and used $BNB Chain to obscure transaction trails before routing portions of the funds back to exchanges.
Analysts also identified transactions linked to the IRGC among Nobitex users. The exchange itself denies direct ties to the Iranian government and claims that any illegal transfers occurred without the knowledge of management.
Trump’s Business Interests and Binance
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Zhao became notable participants in the World Liberty Financial ecosystem.
In early 2025, Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX acquired a $2 billion stake in Binance and paid for the deal using the $USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty. This provided legitimacy to the new token, which World Liberty described as evidence of “extraordinary global demand” for $USD1.
However, Binance CEO Richard Teng denied reports regarding the transaction.
In October 2025, Trump pardoned Zhao, removing his federal criminal conviction related to anti-money laundering compliance failures. Lawyers for Binance and Zhao insist there is no connection between the use of $USD1 and the pardon.
Relations with another World Liberty backer, Justin Sun, deteriorated by spring 2026. In April, Sun sued World Liberty, accusing the company of extortion, while World Liberty responded in May with a defamation lawsuit.
Despite this, Sun still holds 4 billion WLFI tokens with an estimated market value of approximately $266 million.
In March, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled fraud allegations against Sun. He paid $10 million without admitting wrongdoing.
Blockchains and Responsibility
Representatives of $BNB Chain emphasised the public and decentralised nature of the network, stating that the blockchain is maintained by an independent validator community and is neither an exchange nor a company.
Binance described itself as an “early participant and incubator” of $BNB Chain. However, corporate filings in Abu Dhabi indicate that Zhao remains the sole shareholder of BNB Chain Technology Holding Limited.
A Tron spokesperson stated that it is impossible to “monitor every user and every transaction”. Nevertheless, the company noted that Sun helped establish cooperation initiatives with law enforcement agencies that resulted in the freezing of “hundreds of millions” of dollars, including funds connected to sanctioned entities and terrorism financing.
Reuters had previously reported that approximately $7.8 billion in cryptocurrency flowed between Nobitex and Binance between 2018 and 2022 as part of sanctions-evasion schemes. Roughly three-quarters of Iranian funds moving through Binance were denominated in Tron, which the exchange at the time reportedly recommended for anonymous transactions with reduced risk to assets.
A Systemic Overlap of Interests
The Reuters investigation highlights a systemic overlap: blockchains used by Iran to bypass sanctions are simultaneously serving as the infrastructure behind business ventures connected to the family of the current US president.
The White House rejected any suggestion of a conflict of interest, describing Reuters’ attempts to connect Trump to Iran’s banking system as “absurd”.
The question of whether US sanctions policy can coexist with the president’s private business interests remains unresolved.
AI Perspective
From a machine-driven data analysis perspective, the key technical nuance of this story lies in the structural difference between $USDT and assets such as Bitcoin in the context of sanctions enforcement.
$USDT is centralised: Tether can freeze any address at the request of authorities — and this is precisely what happened in April 2026, when more than $344 million linked to Iranian addresses on Tron was frozen.
However, the Tron infrastructure itself remains public and permissionless. Transactions can continue freely unless a wallet address is explicitly blacklisted.
This creates a paradox: a stablecoin designed to provide dollar stability has simultaneously become both an instrument of sanctions compliance and one of the most widely used tools for sanctions evasion.
See also: "Ripple (XRP) Announces Another Major Integration and Partnership"
