sanctions

According to Caixin, the asset investigation into the Prince Group of Cambodia, suspected of transnational online fraud and money laundering, is further unfolding in the UK. Following the freezing of multiple luxury properties in London belonging to the group's founder, Chen Zhi, and the individual identified as the "number two person," Hu Xiaowei, the 170 million yuan luxury property and luxury watches under the name of the group's financial officer, Li Tianming, have also been frozen by the UK.In October 2025, when the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Prince Group and its affiliated individuals, Li Tianming was listed as a close associate of Chen Zhi, indicating that he effectively assumed the role of financial officer responsible for the illegal financial operations of the Prince Group, involving the management of illegal fund flows and large-scale cash smuggling.

According to a report by the WSJ, a previously undisclosed internal investigation report from Binance shows that Iranian financier Babak Zanjani used affiliated companies, shell companies, and multiple trading accounts to transfer funds through Binance, establishing a funding channel for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to evade Western sanctions. The related network involves 21 individual and corporate trading accounts, with a total trading volume of approximately $850 million, of which at least $67 million flowed from two accounts to wallets associated with the IRGC.The report indicates that Tajik businessman Sukhrob Oimakhmadov, classified as a "high-value customer" by Binance, received over $10 million through his account, with sources including digital wallets later identified by the Israeli Ministry of Defense as belonging to the IRGC. The cryptocurrency platform Zedcex, associated with Zanjani, had a total trading volume close to $830 million, with approximately $56 million withdrawn to related wallets. The network also involves the Turkish payment company ZedPay, as well as the cryptocurrency token USDZ used for trading.Binance stated that it has identified the related activities and taken measures, with all accounts associated with sanction violations being restricted from trading and gradually closed. The company also emphasized that the total trading volume of accounts does not equal the actual funds flowing into the IRGC and acknowledged past procedural issues in internal approvals and execution timeliness. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had previously imposed sanctions on Zanjani and related companies and individuals.

On October 8, the UK added Xeltox Enterprises, Processing KG, TokenSpot, and Tsunami Payments to the sanctions list, identified as RUS3755, RUS3756, RUS3758, and RUS3763 respectively. This batch includes a total of 38 new designations, including three cryptocurrency exchanges and two payment platforms. The government stated that two of the companies had processed transactions related to the Kremlin-backed A7 network, which claims to have transferred over $90 billion last year; the announcement did not specify the exact companies, and this figure is based on A7's claims as reported by the UK.The measures go beyond asset freezes, and the listed companies also face restrictions on banking, payment processing, and internet services within the UK. The Secretary of State stated there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Xeltox benefits from or supports the Russian government by operating in the Russian financial services sector, and is associated with activities linked to Cryptomus and those continued through Heleket. Cryptomus, Heleket, and Certa Payments Ltd are listed as major name variants of Xeltox. TokenSpot is a closed joint-stock company based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with reasonable grounds to suspect it supports the Russian government or benefits from it by operating in the Russian financial services sector.Processing KG is an open joint-stock company based in Bishkek, with websites processing-kg.com and vexpay.net, and records indicate that the parent company is the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance, engaged in business of economic significance to the Russian government;

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing whether Binance Holdings Ltd. has violated the settlement agreement reached with the U.S. government in 2023, while also investigating whether activities on the platform may involve violations of Iran sanctions.Tysen Duva, head of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, stated in an interview this week that officials are reviewing Binance's compliance with the 2023 agreement. He declined to discuss details and did not indicate that Binance violated the settlement agreement. Under the agreement, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine, acknowledged violations of banking-related rules, and accepted enhanced compliance controls.

The blockade of Iranian ports by the United States has reduced Iran's oil exports to extremely low levels, causing Tehran to lose billions of dollars in revenue each month.Although the economic pressure has not yet forced Iran to make concessions in negotiations, the Trump administration believes that time is on the side of the United States, and the blockade measures are enhancing the effectiveness of the sanctions.

According to CoinDesk, the UK Foreign Office announced a new round of sanctions related to Russia, stating that relevant cryptocurrency platforms may assist Russia in evading sanctions.The sanctioned entities include Xeltox Enterprises, which operates Cryptomus, Heleket, and Certa Payments, the Kyrgyz exchange TokenSpot, and the payment platform Processing KG, as well as Tsunami Payments, two of which previously handled transactions related to the A7A5 network.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on Cryptomus, Heleket, and TokenSpot in actions targeting Russian entities suspected of evading sanctions. TokenSpot transferred over $950 million in funds to the sanctioned exchanges Grinex, Garantex, and the Kremlin-backed A7 network.

The Cardano Foundation announced that the programmable token standard CIP-0113 has officially launched on the Cardano mainnet, allowing issuers of regulated assets such as stablecoins, tokenized funds, and bonds to directly embed compliance rules such as KYC, anti-money laundering, sanctions screening, asset freezing and confiscation, and transfer restrictions into the tokens, which will be executed by the Cardano ledger during each transfer, minting, and burning.This standard does not require a hard fork, and the tokens remain native assets of Cardano, with issuers able to update the rule modules according to regulatory changes.

According to a report by the Japan Economic News cited by Reference News, the Japanese government has decided to impose additional sanctions on Russia during a cabinet meeting. In principle, the Japanese government prohibits providing operational, maintenance, insurance, and financing services to 35 vessels in Russia's "shadow fleet," which secretly transports crude oil to evade Western sanctions.In addition to the sanctions against the "shadow fleet," the Japanese government will also add 33 Russian military-related groups and 9 individuals to the asset freeze list, including groups involved in using cryptocurrency to evade financial sanctions.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a member of Hamas's military wing, two French nationals, and two charitable organizations, accusing them of raising over $2 million for Hamas through cryptocurrency and so-called humanitarian donations in a fundraising campaign that lasted six years.The Treasury stated that Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid raised funds in France under the guise of humanitarian efforts, subsequently transferring the money to Hamas. This network raised over $2 million between 2020 and 2026, with $1.5 million occurring after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The two also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq in Gaza, who is the deputy battalion commander of Hamas's Kassam Brigades.The sanctions freeze the assets of the relevant entities within U.S. jurisdiction, and Americans are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions may face secondary sanctions risks, and restrictions also extend to companies in which the sanctioned parties hold more than 50% directly or indirectly. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on complex financial intermediaries and fraudulent means. This move indicates U.S. concern about the role of cryptocurrency in broader fundraising networks, rather than viewing it as Hamas's primary source of funding.

According to Cointelegraph, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry jointly issued a statement on Friday, officially adding the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to the asset freeze list. This measure will severely restrict payment and capital transaction activities related to Garantex.The statement pointed out that this expansion of sanctions is due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Garantex has previously been blacklisted by multiple jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, for allegedly assisting Russian entities in evading financial restrictions.In addition to the cryptocurrency platform, Japan has also added 33 related organizations and 9 individuals to the sanctions list in this action, and imposed bans on repair and insurance services for 35 vessels suspected of transporting Russian crude oil as part of a "shadow fleet."

According to a report by the Japan Economic News cited by Reference News, the Japanese government has decided to impose additional sanctions on Russia during a cabinet meeting. In principle, the Japanese government prohibits providing operational, maintenance, insurance, and financing services to 35 vessels in Russia's "shadow fleet," which secretly transports crude oil to evade Western sanctions.In addition to the sanctions against the "shadow fleet," the Japanese government has also added 33 Russian military-related groups and 9 individuals to the asset freeze list, including groups involved in using cryptocurrency to evade financial sanctions.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the Russian shadow banking network A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization, listing its relevant addresses in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed a draft rule that aims to prohibit U.S. institutions from participating in any fund transfers involving the network's "sub-agent companies," covering convertible virtual currencies and not limited to fiat currencies, which is expected to affect approximately 348,000 institutions, including several cryptocurrency exchanges.The proposal is based on six special measures granted by Section 9714 of the Countering Russian Money Laundering Act, ultimately selecting the sixth measure, which is the fund transfer ban. The fifth measure, which restricts correspondent accounts, is considered to have loopholes: research by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs shows that A7A5 transactions completely bypass the correspondent banking system, which the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network views as a core aspect of its business model. A7A5 is a ruble-backed token issued by Old Vector, registered in Kyrgyzstan, operating on Tron and Ethereum, with reserves held at the Russian state-owned defense bank Promsvyazbank.The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network stated that between February 2025 and June 2026, over 180 entities handled at least $17.91 billion in A7A5, which historically circulated almost entirely through the sanctioned exchanges Garantex and Grinex, often used as a non-frozen bridge to convert into USDT and then into fiat currency.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on the ATM network associated with Tren de Aragua and has added seven Tron addresses to the sanctions list.Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis stated that the counterparties of the aforementioned wallets had interacted with money laundering networks used by drug trafficking groups in Mexico and Colombia, as well as money launderers in Venezuela.

The Democratic investigators of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report accusing USDT of becoming an important financial conduit for Iran's shadow banking system, and called for the Treasury Department and the Justice Department to investigate whether Tether violated sanctions and banking laws. The report mentioned Tether's relationship with the Trump administration, including business dealings between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, controlled by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's family, as well as Bo Hines, the former head of the White House Cryptocurrency Committee, serving as Tether's head of U.S. operations.This report continues the Democratic investigation into the Trump family's cryptocurrency business. In May 2025, Richard Blumenthal launched an investigation into TRUMP, the token holders' dinner, and World Liberty Financial; in June, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley demanded explanations from MGX and Binance on why they used the Trump family-affiliated stablecoin USD1 to settle a $2 billion investment. In November, the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee released a report accusing the Trump family of profiting from cryptocurrency businesses such as WLFI and TRUMP, describing regulatory rollbacks, termination of enforcement, and pardons for related individuals as a form of benefit transfer, claiming their cryptocurrency assets were valued at up to $11.6 billion, with related revenues exceeding $800 million in the first half of 2025.In 2026, Ro Khanna investigated reports that members of the UAE royal family spent $500 million to acquire a 49% stake in WLFI, and whether this transaction was related to U.S. policies on AI chips in the UAE;

According to Saudi media outlet Hadass, sources say that Iran has agreed to stop uranium enrichment in exchange for the United States easing sanctions.

The issuer of the stablecoin USDT, Tether, stated on September 28 that actions involving USDT in 2026 have frozen approximately $550 million, with the related wallets identified by U.S. authorities as being associated with the Central Bank of Iran and the Iranian sanctions network. Tether claimed that its cooperation with U.S. and international authorities has supported over 2,900 investigations globally, with more than 1,600 involving U.S. law enforcement agencies.According to Tether, in April 2026, it assisted in freezing over $344 million USDT across two addresses based on information provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement agencies. The next day, OFAC listed these addresses as digital currency identifiers of the Central Bank of Iran, with the sanctions entry associated with the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. In July 2026, the Treasury expanded the designated scope to four additional TRON addresses, with over $130 million USDT frozen across the four wallets.Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that USDT is not a safe haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations, or criminal networks, and that public blockchains allow authorities to see the flow of funds, enabling Tether to take action when law enforcement provides credible information. Tether also mentioned that it collaborates with over 340 law enforcement agencies in 67 countries, and its wallet freezing policy has been aligned with the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list.

A survey by the Democratic Party of the U.S. Senate claims that the stablecoin USDT issued by Tether has become a major payment method for Iran. The survey shows that among over 800 sanctioned cryptocurrency wallets, about 84% primarily or exclusively use USDT.The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had previously stated that its review of blockchain records, sanctions lists, and asset seizure notices found that the sanctioned wallets are mainly distributed across the Tron and Ethereum networks and have conducted USDT transactions.