Crypto Exchanges
By Sakamoto Nashi
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CoinEx and Nobitex: $2.7 Billion and Counting. Since 2018, CoinEx and Nobitex traded more than $2.7 billion between them.
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ViaBTC's Role and the Nobitex Cyberattack. ViaBTC, the mining pool linked to CoinEx, isn't off the hook either.
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CoinEx moved more than $3.84 billion through transactions tied to sanctioned Iranian entities over roughly seven years, per a TRM Labs investigation.
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The TRM Labs report zeroes in on Nobitex and BitPin as two of the most significant names caught in the net.
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Since 2018, CoinEx and Nobitex traded more than $2.7 billion between them. That works out to roughly $1 million a day, on average — a steady, sustained flow that's hard to write…
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TRM didn't stop at Nobitex. The investigation traced connections between CoinEx and more than 60 Iranian crypto businesses, including Wallex and Ramzinex. Sixty-plus businesses.
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Then there's the Central Bank of Iran piece, which is probably the most alarming detail in the whole report.
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ViaBTC, the mining pool linked to CoinEx, isn't off the hook either. TRM traced $154 million in transactions between ViaBTC and wallets connected to Iranian entities.
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Related: 80% of European Crypto Firms Face MiCA Deadline Without Licenses
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The geopolitical context matters here. When the U.S.-Iran-Israel conflict intensified in 2026, transaction behavior shifted noticeably. Transfer sizes grew.
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After OFAC's sanctions landed, overall transaction volumes between CoinEx and Iranian entities did drop.
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CoinEx's exposure goes beyond Iran, too. TRM's report tied the exchange's blockchain activity to wallets connected to the IRGC, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah — three…
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CoinEx pushed back. The exchange denied any direct relationship with the Iranian government or sanctioned groups and said that blockchain transactions on their own don't prove…
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See also: EU Issues 230 MiCA Licenses as Germany Leads Crypto Approvals Across the Bloc
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The OFAC sanctions on Nobitex and BitPin are recent. Compliance teams at major exchanges are scrambling to map their own exposure.
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