How Iran Allegedly Used a Big Crypto Exchange to Get Around Sanctions

$1.5 billion. That is how much U.S. prosecutors say flowed back to Iran through customers of Binance, the large crypto exchange.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 9 on an internal Binance document that explains how one Iranian network moved money through the exchange despite Western sanctions, in a story titled "How a Binance ‘High-Value Customer’ Established a Financial Lifeline for Iran" The Wall Street Journal. According to the Journal, the document shows how the transfers worked and describes the network as a VIP customer, not an ordinary small user. VIP means special service for big clients, like a priority desk at a bank.

This document is the latest in a series over the past eight months. The last big disclosure was reported on Sept. 15. Prosecutors said several companies used Binance to pass along payments for Iranian oil sold secretly to Chinese buyers, to help fund Iran The Wall Street Journal. This was not simple person-to-person trading. Binance sat in the middle between oil money and where it went next.

In that case, prosecutors said about $1.5 billion moved through linked digital wallets controlled by Binance customers. Wallets are digital accounts for crypto. Investigators link them by looking for clues in common. Shared starting money, peel chains that peel off small amounts while sending the rest forward, and the same final destination let analysts connect different addresses to one user. The claim is the trail led back to Iran.

Two earlier Journal reports listed other amounts. In May, the Journal reported a key money manager for Iran's government did $850 million in transactions on Binance The Wall Street Journal. In February, it reported Binance closed an internal probe into $1 billion sent to a terror network backed by Iran and fired the staff who found it The Wall Street Journal.

The Justice Department is now investigating Iran's use of Binance to dodge U.S. sanctions, after that internal probe was shut down The Wall Street Journal. Binance says sanctions-linked activity as a share of all trading fell 96.8% between January 2024 and July 2025 Binance.

For context on why timing matters, punishment does not turn only on whether bad money arrived. Every big exchange gets some. It turns on what the exchange knew, when bosses were told, and whether checks, probes and reports to authorities kept going after warnings.

The broader context here is oil plus crypto. Iran sells oil off the books to China. It cannot use normal dollar bank payments. So it needs another payment path outside banks and a place to turn crypto into usable money. A busy exchange where people buy now or bet on future prices, with fast moves inside its own books, quick wallet changes and private deals for big traders, can do that job. The exchange never touches the oil. It only handles the money part.

In my view, the VIP part is what to watch. Lower fees for heavy traders, a dedicated helper, permission for computers to trade faster and larger withdrawals are normal perks. For a sanctions-linked network, those perks cut costs and make big moves easier. The question is whether checks on where money came from, who really owns the account and bad news in the press get tougher as perks grow, or whether business comes first.

Looking at what this means for ordinary savers, the trail cuts both ways. Linked wallets leave footprints that help police trace money later. That does not stop it in the moment. Stopping it needs risk scores on deposits, rules for direct and indirect Iran links, and willingness to freeze and close a paying account. The 96.8% number is a share, not dollars. A share can drop because bad activity fell, because total trading rose, or both. Experts also look at dollars flagged, speed of finding and closing accounts, and whether VIP and market-maker flows got extra checks fitting the country risk. Whether indirect paths through accounts inside accounts and middlemen for oil money are counted will shape how regulators view the new paper alongside the $1.5 billion, $850 million and $1 billion already reported. Those cover different clients, times and end users, so they cannot just be added. Together they show a pattern, not one mistake.