Key notes
- TRM Labs traced approximately $1 billion in crypto transactions to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- They were processed via the UK exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion between 2023 and 2025.
- Most of the funds moved were in Tether (USDT) on the Tron blockchain.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has used two UK-registered cryptocurrency platforms to move around $1 billion since 2023, according to a new analysis from blockchain forensics firm TRM Labs.
The exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, operated as a single company and processed flows related to sanctioned IRGC wallets, offshore intermediaries and Iran-based crypto companies.
How the network worked
TRM claims to have tracked the internal infrastructure of the exchanges by making small deposits/withdrawals and tracking activities related to 187 wallet addresses designated by Israeli authorities as being controlled by the IRGC.
The company estimates that IRGC-related transactions accounted for 56% of Zedcex/Zedxion volume over the 2023-2025 period. Value was primarily sent in USDT on the Tron chain, with approximately $24 million in 2023, $619 million in 2024, and $410 million in 2025.
UK Registration and Compliance Claims
Both exchanges present themselves as conventional trading platforms with anti-money laundering programs. However, their public sanctions lists differ: Zedcex lists Iran as banned, while Zedxion does not.
Neither platform provided the comments requested by the Washington Post. The UK Treasury’s Financial Sanctions Enforcement Office also declined to comment.
What investigators and the industry say
TRM policy manager Ari Redbord said Iran-linked actors “appear to be testing more persistent crypto infrastructure,” not just one-off transactions. A former US Treasury official told the Washington Post that the two-year total of $1 billion shows that digital assets are becoming a conduit for Iran’s “shadow banking apparatus.”
The Post identified Zedcex/Zedxion as related operations and reported a $10 million transfer from an IRGC wallet to a Yemeni individual sanctioned in 2021 for financing the Houthis.
Why it matters
The IRGC is subject to heavy U.S. and Western sanctions and has long relied on front companies to move money internationally. TRM’s findings suggest a step change in sophistication using UK-registered crypto sites as sustainable rails for delivering funds that traditional banks cannot.
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Yana Khlebnikova joined CoinSpeaker as an editor in January 2025, following previous stints at Techopedia, crypto.news, Cointelegraph and CoinMarketCap, where she honed her expertise in cryptocurrency journalism.
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