The US Treasury has cut cryptocurrency exchange MEXC Global off from the American financial system, accusing it of facilitating at least $16 billion in illicit transactions linked to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as cybercrime.
The order, issued on Friday by the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), prevents US financial institutions from processing funds transfers involving MEXC Global. It is part of Operation Economic Outcast, a Treasury campaign launched in August aimed at cutting off financial entities that help Iran evade sanctions.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons user 颐园居, CC BY-SA 4.0
What Treasury says MEXC did
According to the Treasury, MEXC Global — a Seychelles-incorporated convertible virtual currency exchanger founded in 2018 — moved at least $16 billion connected to sanctions evasion, cybercrime and other illicit activity between May 2021 and May 2026. As of September 2026, the platform processed more than $1 billion in daily transactions and held about $5 billion in reserves.
Treasury said the exchange's anti-money laundering controls had severe deficiencies, even though MEXC publicly claims to prohibit use by people in jurisdictions including Iran and North Korea. The platform, Treasury said, became a hub for sanctioned actors, ransomware and scam payments, and Russian and other darknet market activity.
The Russia connection
The Russian links are central to the enforcement action. Treasury said MEXC facilitated nearly $1.5 billion in transactions linked to Russian sanctions evasion, including $232 million in direct transactions with US-, EU- and UK-sanctioned entities. FinCEN designated MEXC a "primary money laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance" under section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act.
Treasury said MEXC was still processing transactions with Garantex — the Russian crypto exchange the US sanctioned in April 2022 — and its successor Grinex as recently as June 2026. The platform also facilitated at least $26 million in transactions benefiting the Russia-based A7 sanctions evasion network, including about $200 million in transactions involving the A7A5 stablecoin, according to Treasury.
Iran and North Korea links
Treasury said MEXC sent or received about $1 billion with more than 40 Iranian crypto exchangers, and facilitated about $22 million in transactions for the sanctioned Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Qods Force.
The action came on the same day Treasury imposed sanctions on eight money services firms based in Canada that it alleges facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian entities. The firms, in Ontario and British Columbia, were cut off from the dollar-based financial system, Reuters reported, in what Treasury described as the latest in a series of moves against firms outside the United States that it says help Iran get around US sanctions.
What the order does — and when it bites
The FinCEN order does not shut MEXC down worldwide or seize customer deposits. Instead, it targets the intermediaries that connect the offshore platform to the US financial system: once it takes effect, covered US financial institutions will be barred from any funds transfer — including in convertible virtual currency — to or from MEXC Global and named affiliates in Seychelles, Estonia, Switzerland and the UK.
The ban takes effect 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register. As of Friday evening, the Register had not yet published the notice, so that 30-day clock had not started.
The move lands as Washington keeps up pressure on Tehran, days after the US carried out fresh strikes on Iranian air defences near the Strait of Hormuz and as Treasury steps up enforcement against the financial networks it says sustain Iran's sanctioned economy.
Sources: US Department of the Treasury, Reuters, CoinTelegraph.