A Dubai-based crypto exchange called Shelbit sits at the hub of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions-evasion network that has moved hundreds of millions of dollars through major global platforms including Binance, Reuters reported on Friday. The operation links an illegal gambling network of more than 2,000 platforms, Iran's central bank, and wallets identified by the Israeli government as tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, raising direct questions about the effectiveness of exchange compliance controls and the exposure of counterparties to sanctioned flows.
The exchange and its operator
Shelbit is an unlicensed exchange run by Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, according to the Reuters investigation. The report describes it as the central node through which a Dubai-based gambling network, Iran's central bank, and other sanctioned Iranian entities access global crypto markets. The Central Bank of Iran has been designated under U.S. counterterrorism authorities since 2019 for its support of the IRGC, its Quds Force, and Hezbollah.
Flows through major venues
Hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency moved from Shelbit to prominent crypto companies, the report said, naming Binance as a destination. Binance told Reuters that Shelbit never held an account on its platform, that transactions linked to Shelbit were not considered high risk, and that it had investigated associated users, frozen relevant accounts, and reported them to law enforcement. The exchange did not disclose the volume or timing of those flows.
IRGC links and investigator views
U.S. and independent investigators say the operation appears closely tied to the IRGC, though Reuters said it could not confirm direct IRGC control over Shelbit or the gambling network. Rich Sanders, an independent blockchain researcher focused on Iran, characterized it as an IRGC operation that is "plain as day." John Wojcik, a former Infoblox researcher now at TRM Labs who spent seven years investigating illegal gambling for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, called it the biggest Iranian illegal gambling network ever discovered and one of the largest in the world. The network ranks among the most significant Iranian sanctions-evasion schemes uncovered since the 2016 breakup of a roughly $20 billion IRGC gold-for-oil operation in Turkey, and follows a U.S. seizure of $1 billion in crypto from Iran in May.
Custody and provenance gaps
Shelbit also interacts directly with Nobitex, an Iranian exchange sanctioned by the U.S. earlier this year after a separate Reuters investigation revealed its government ties, and with wallets the Israeli government has linked to the IRGC. Some of the cryptocurrency flowing to Shelbit originated from what investigative firms described as an Iranian bitcoin mining operation. The provenance of funds, the custody arrangements at Shelbit, and the full extent of counterparty exposure remain undisclosed.