Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has rejected a report from blockchain-intelligence firm TRM Labs that identified it as a major conduit for sanctioned Iranian funds, setting up a public dispute over how on-chain transaction data should be interpreted. The exchange disputed the findings a day after they were published and amplified by a major newspaper.
In a report released on Wednesday, TRM Labs said it had traced more than $3.84 billion in flows between CoinEx and over 60 sanctioned Iranian entities since 2019, describing the exchange as the primary external route through which Iran-linked capital moved into global crypto markets. The largest portion, around $2.7 billion, was associated with Nobitex, Iran's biggest domestic exchange, and the firm said CoinEx had become Nobitex's single largest foreign counterparty, a position it took over after another major exchange pulled back amid US enforcement pressure. TRM argued that the scale and consistency of the activity suggested a coordinated relationship rather than ordinary market behavior, and it flagged smaller sums tied to entities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and other designated groups, as well as funds connected to the country's central bank.
The report landed roughly three weeks after the US Treasury sanctioned a group of Iranian crypto exchanges, including Nobitex, as part of a broader campaign targeting Tehran's access to the financial system, and amid statements from a senior Treasury official that the government had seized about $1 billion in crypto tied to Iran. It was also cited the same day by The Wall Street Journal.
CoinEx, which is registered in the Seychelles, pushed back firmly. In a statement, the exchange said it had never established any commercial relationship with Iranian government-related entities or domestic exchanges, and had never provided funding channels or active assistance to Iranian government agencies, Revolutionary Guard-related entities or other sanctioned parties. It also said it had been blocked within Iran since 2021 and operated no entity there, which it argued undercut the notion that it served as an official conduit for the country.
At the heart of the exchange's defense was a distinction between the existence of on-chain flows and any knowledge of or participation in illicit activity. CoinEx argued that because blockchain transactions are open and traceable by nature, the fact that funds passed through a platform does not establish that the platform was aware of, supported or took part in the underlying activity, and it cautioned that data from any single analytics provider should not be treated as definitive. The company said that following the early-June sanctions it had begun a comprehensive review and exit from Iran-related exposure, tightening identity checks, geo-fencing and transaction monitoring, and that it would restrict or freeze accounts tied to sanctioned parties.
The episode highlights a growing tension at the center of sanctions enforcement, as authorities increasingly rely on blockchain analytics to trace illicit flows. Analysts noted that under the US strict-liability framework for sanctions, legal exposure can arise from the transactions themselves regardless of intent, drawing parallels to an earlier case involving a larger exchange. CoinEx has not been named in any new US enforcement action stemming from the report, leaving it, for now, a contested set of allegations rather than a formal finding, but one that places the exchange under fresh scrutiny from compliance teams and regulators.