Crypto news

The cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx strongly denies a publication by The Wall Street Journal that labels it as one of the key channels for funneling Iranian funds in circumvention of U.S. sanctions. According to data from the analytical firm TRM Labs, over the past seven years, Iranian transactions totaling $3.84 billion have passed through the platform and its affiliated structures. However, CoinEx insists that it has had no commercial relationships with Iranian government entities or local trading platforms and has not provided sanctioned individuals with channels for financing.

The exchange points out that Iranian authorities added CoinEx to a blacklist back in 2021 and blocked its official domain in the country. This fact, according to the company, completely refutes its role as an official financial channel for Iran. Additionally, CoinEx states that it has not opened offices in Iran nor hired local employees to develop its business. The referral program was promoted by individual users, not by the exchange itself.

CoinEx's key argument: "We categorically reject any allegations that conflate ordinary user activity with state-level sanctions evasion." The exchange also emphasizes that after the Bybit hack incident, it helped block an account and freeze assets, and has promised to conduct an internal review. It is worth recalling that CoinEx itself suffered a cyberattack in 2023 resulting in $80 million in losses, which has been linked to a North Korean hacking group.

What lies behind the WSJ and TRM Labs figures?

The WSJ investigation relies on data from TRM Labs, according to which over $3.84 billion has passed through CoinEx, the affiliated mining pool ViaBTC, and more than 60 Iranian crypto services. CoinEx accounts for nearly 8% of all turnover related to illicit activity, whereas for exchanges with operational compliance, this figure is around 0.3%.

According to analysts, the main flow occurred between CoinEx and the largest Iranian exchange, Nobitex. Since November 2018, over $2.7 billion has been transferred between the platforms in 6.2 million transactions — averaging about $1 million per day. By 2025, CoinEx was providing approximately 16% of Nobitex's turnover, outpacing the next largest external counterparty by nearly nine times. Notably, Nobitex sent about $360 million more to CoinEx than it received back, which experts indicate points to the withdrawal of cryptocurrency from Iran to the global market.

Interestingly, CoinEx took this position after Binance, which was fined by the U.S. in 2023 for servicing Iranian clients. By 2024, CoinEx had become the primary external counterparty for Nobitex. ViaBTC, in turn, transferred over $154 million to Nobitex wallets as mining payouts, and after the attack on Nobitex in 2025, helped the exchange restore liquidity.

Separately, the report mentions the Central Bank of Iran: allegedly, through a multi-layered money laundering scheme, about $67 million of its funds passed through a chain of addresses and ultimately ended up on CoinEx. Analysts link this money to the $1.5 billion in assets stolen during the Bybit hack, which is attributed to North Korean hackers.

My expert commentary: The situation surrounding CoinEx is a classic example of the clash between the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and strict sanctions regimes. On one hand, the exchange indeed cannot control every user, especially when activity goes through decentralized wallets and complex schemes. On the other hand, the figures from TRM Labs look convincing and cannot be ignored. The market already sees that after the tightening of sanctions, the volume of transactions between CoinEx and Iranian exchanges has sharply dropped below $150,000. However, the question remains open: will new channels for evading monitoring emerge? For now, it is only a matter of time, and CoinEx, like other global exchanges, finds itself between a rock and a hard place — between the need to comply with the law and the impossibility of fully controlling user behavior on the blockchain.