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US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to IRGC

The Treasury Department accuses the exchange of facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin transfers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
U.S. sanctions Iran-linked bitcoin insurance scheme for Strait of Hormuz ships. (Getty Images)

What this story says

  • The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank.
  • BitBank is accused of moving hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
  • The transfers were allegedly linked to payments for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
  • BitBank is reportedly controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, who is also under U.S. sanctions.

Who covered it

Left 6%(2)Centre 41%(13)Right 53%(17)

Percentages are shares of the 32 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 74 of the 106 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

57/100

Hype

41/100

106 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 2 of the 32 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange BitBank. The department accuses the exchange of facilitating the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These transfers were reportedly linked to payments made by shipping companies for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

BitBank is reportedly controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, who is himself already under U.S. sanctions. The Treasury Department's action is part of what it calls Operation Economic Outcast, aimed at disrupting Iran's use of digital assets to evade sanctions.

Disagreement on specific details

While multiple reports state that hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin were transferred, the timeframe for these transfers is not consistently reported. Some reports state that hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin moved through BitBank to the Revolutionary Guards in two months, while others mention that as of June, the Hormuz Safe Marine Service processed these payments.

What the coverage left out

None of the centre or right-rated reports printed below mention the specific amount of Bitcoin transferred in U.S. dollars, only that it was hundreds of millions of dollars. No left-rated outlet ran this story at all.

Tags:#USSanctions#Iran#Cryptocurrency#IRGC#StraitOfHormuz#BitBank#BabakZanjani

Coverage settled. We checked this 91 times and stopped on 24 Sept 2026, 14:15. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Babak Zanjani has long been a key figure in Iran’s sanctions-evasion networks. (Supplied)
Arab NewsRight

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

2 rated outlets

We have not written our reading of the left coverage of this story. The left-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.

Centre

13 rated outlets

  • Centre-rated reports led on the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioning the Iranian exchange BitBank. These reports highlighted the exchange's alleged role in moving hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The connection to payments for passage through the Strait of Hormuz was also a prominent theme. Several centre-rated reports mentioned that the exchange is controlled by financier Babak Zanjani, who is also under U.S. sanctions. The Treasury Department's statement that crypto is not beyond OFAC's reach was also noted.

Right

17 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports focused on the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioning the Iranian crypto exchange BitBank for sanctions evasion. These reports also noted the alleged Bitcoin transfers to the IRGC and the link to payments for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's statement that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond American sanctions was highlighted.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to…?
Of the 32 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 6% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 53% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 106. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 32 rated outlets on this story, 6% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 53% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to… biased?
US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to IRGC is one event reported by 106 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered US Sanctions Iranian Crypto Exchange BitBank for Bitcoin Transfers to…?
106 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What is BitBank accused of?
The U.S. Treasury Department accuses BitBank, an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange, of facilitating the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These transfers were allegedly linked to payments for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Who controls BitBank?
BitBank is reportedly controlled by financier Babak Zanjani. Zanjani is also under existing U.S. sanctions, and the Treasury Department's action against BitBank is part of a broader effort to disrupt Iran's use of digital assets for sanctions evasion.
What is the significance of the Strait of Hormuz in this context?
The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global oil shipments. Reports indicate that the Bitcoin transfers facilitated by BitBank were linked to payments made by shipping companies seeking safe passage through this vital waterway.

Read it at the source

106 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

2

Centre

13
Show 5 more

Right

17
Show 9 more

Not rated

74
Show 66 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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