Binance helped Iranian firms trade $8 billion despite sanctions

According to blockchain data, crypto giant Binance has processed $8 billion in Iranian transactions since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions intended to cut Iran off from the global financial system.

Reuters reports that almost all the funds, about $7.8 billion, flowed between Binance and Iran's largest crypto exchange, Nobitex.

This was found after reviewing data from leading U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis. Further evaluations also show that Nobitex offers guidance on its website on how users can bypass sanctions.

The report highlighted that most of the Iranian funds that passed through Binance were in a relatively low-profile cryptocurrency called Tron that allows users to conceal their identities.

In a blog post last year, Nobitex encouraged clients to use Tron - a mid-tier token - to trade anonymously without "endangering assets due to sanctions."

Before this time, the scale of Binance's Iranian crypto flows – and the fact that they are still going on has not been reported.

The new findings come as the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing an investigation into possible violations of money-laundering rules by Binance, which dominates the $1 trillion crypto industry, with over 120 million users.

The transactions put the company at risk of falling afoul of U.S. prohibitions on doing business with Iran, lawyers and trade-sanctions experts said.