Iran reportedly used crypto platform Binance to transfer $1.7 billion to terrorist proxies in 2025

The Islamic Republic of Iran used accounts on the cryptocurrency platform Binance to transfer $1.7 billion to its terrorist proxies in 2025, according to a report by The New York Times. The transfers took place despite global sanctions on the ayatollah regime. Binance said the transactions stemmed from “violations of company protocol” and reportedly fired or suspended four employees following an internal investigation.

A Binance representative, Rachel Conland, said in an official statement that the crypto platform did not knowingly facilitate Iranian funds being transferred to terrorist proxies.

“Any suggestion that Binance knowingly allowed sanctionable activity to continue unchecked is incorrect and defamatory,” Conlan said. “No investigator was dismissed for raising compliance concerns or for reporting potential sanctions issues."

Snir Levi who heads the blockchain intelligence platform NOMINIS, spoke on Sunday with the Jerusalem Post about how regimes under sanctions transfer funds through blockchain crypto platforms. 

"The latest allegations about Binance come months after the lawsuit by the victims' families of October 7 - the ongoing Balva v Binance case. The majority of the allegations can be easily confirmed by on-chain data. There are thousands of cases where money has been sent and received to and from wallets that have clear connections to Iran," Levi explained.

In 2024, some 100 American and Israeli victims of the Hamas Oct. 7 attack, filed a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against the founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao. The official complaint stated that Binance “intentionally and/or negligently provided extensive cryptocurrency services to Hamas, which caused, enabled, and facilitated the October 7 attack.”

“Defendant Changpeng Zhao’s actions directly contributed to the horrific mass terrorist attack,” the lawsuit argued. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reportedly transferred over $1 billion through Binance to Tehran’s main proxy Hezbollah but also to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). 

Last October, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao despite the fact that he pleaded guilty of anti-money-laundering violations in 2023. 

“They say what he did was not even a crime. It wasn’t a crime,” Trump told media reporters in October 2025. “That he was persecuted by the Biden administration and so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal opened an inquiry into Binance earlier this week. 

“Binance appears to have ignored warnings and recommendations to prevent Iranian money laundering schemes on its cryptocurrency exchange,” wrote in a letter to Binance’s co-chief executive, Richard Teng.

“According to documents obtained by the Times and the Journal, Binance was even warned that Hexa Whale was financing terrorist organizations such as the Yemeni Houthis, and internal investigators found cryptocurrency transfers to wallets associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and payments to crew members of Russia’s sanctions-evading shadow fleet of oil tankers,” the Senator continued. 

Furthermore, Blumenthal criticized the Trump administration and Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, for their involvement in the Binance scandal. 

“Instead of actually preventing illicit use, Binance has sought to evade accountability and influence the White House through lobbying and a financial partnership with World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the cryptocurrency firm owned by the sons of President Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff… This influence campaign has worked: in May 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it was dismissing a lawsuit against Binance for lying to regulators and mishandling funds, followed in October by the stunning Presidential pardon of founder Changpeng Zhao.”

“The scale of the newly-revealed illicit transfers - uncaught until nearly two billion dollars flowed to sanctioned entities – and the unexplained firing of internal investigators call into question Binance’s compliance with American sanctions and banking laws, and its 2023 agreement to resolve the previous federal investigation,” the senator concluded.

In November 2025, U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, John Hurley reported that the Iranian regime had transferred $1 billion to Hezbollah despite Western sanctions on Tehran. 

“Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they’re still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies,” Hurley warned.