Binance and Iranian ties: Why exchange faces renewed accusations

​Binance has once again come under pressure over Iran: according to media reports, hundreds of millions of dollars linked to Iranian structures may have passed through accounts connected to the exchange. The company denies the allegations and insists that it did not serve sanctioned individuals. But the problem is that the new claims hit the same weak spot that previously led the exchange to pay a record fine and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, to receive a prison sentence.

New allegations and Binance’s response

The new scandal was triggered by an investigation by The Wall Street Journal. According to the publication, funds linked to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, crypto company Zedcex, and structures close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) may have passed through accounts on Binance.

The WSJ claims that Zanjani’s network moved about $850 million through Binance over two years. According to estimates cited by the publication, roughly $425 million of that amount may have been directed toward financing Iranian military structures. The article also says that accounts linked to Zanjani’s circle allegedly used the same devices, while Binance’s internal systems detected access from Tehran and repeatedly issued warnings about possible sanctions evasion.

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Binance rejected the allegations. The exchange’s CEO, Richard Teng, called the WSJ article “fundamentally inaccurate” and said the company did not serve sanctioned individuals. According to him, if suspicious activity was detected, it related to the period before the relevant individuals were added to U.S. sanctions lists. The company also stressed that Binance did not conduct direct transactions with sanctioned organizations and had already investigated some of the mentioned episodes.

Binance insists that its current control system is capable of identifying such risks. According to Teng, since 2024 the company has significantly strengthened its compliance procedures, expanded transaction monitoring, improved customer checks, and enhanced mechanisms for detecting sanctions risks. The exchange argues that these tools allow it to track suspicious activity, restrict problematic accounts, and share information with law enforcement agencies.

Why Iran is back in the spotlight

The high-profile investigation did not emerge out of nowhere. Earlier this year, Binance had already had to respond to similar allegations related to Iran. At the time, media reports said that transactions worth about $1.7 billion, linked to Iranian counterparties and entities under sanctions pressure, may have passed through the exchange’s infrastructure.

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Those publications mentioned Hong Kong-based payment company Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale Trading. According to media reports, Blessed Trust may have processed about $1 billion for accounts linked to entities in Iran, while Hexa Whale moved large volumes of stablecoins into connected networks.

U.S. authorities also became interested in the situation. U.S. senators sent inquiries regarding Binance’s possible ties to Iranian organizations, and the WSJ later reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had begun reviewing the use of the exchange to evade sanctions. Binance itself denied knowingly serving Iranian structures and filed a lawsuit against the WSJ, calling the publication’s claims false and defamatory.

The exchange’s old problems and the case of Changpeng Zhao

For Binance, the Iran issue became a problem long before the WSJ investigations. Back in 2023, the exchange blocked thousands of accounts belonging to clients from Iran because of U.S. sanctions. At the same time, according to media reports, Binance had previously served traders and companies from the country for years, despite restrictions prohibiting such activity.

Later, sanctions-related claims became part of a much larger case against the exchange in the United States. In 2023, Binance admitted to violating anti-money laundering rules and sanctions controls, agreed to pay a record $4.3 billion fine, and accepted enhanced oversight. For the company, it became one of the heaviest legal blows in its history.

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The main symbol of that crisis was Changpeng Zhao. Binance’s founder stepped down as CEO and pleaded guilty to one criminal charge related to violations of anti-money laundering requirements. Zhao also agreed to pay a personal fine of $50 million. In 2024, a court sentenced him to four months in prison, after which Zhao served his sentence and was released.

How Binance is trying to prove it has changed

After its settlement with U.S. authorities, Binance has been trying to build the image of a company that operates by the rules. At the center of this defense is the claim that the exchange has radically changed its approach to compliance, sanctions controls, and cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

Binance also separately emphasizes the technical nature of blockchain transactions. The exchange’s logic is that public blockchains are open, meaning any user can send assets to an exchange deposit address. Therefore, the mere fact that funds arrived at Binance addresses, according to the company, does not prove that the platform knowingly served sanctioned structures or helped them circumvent restrictions.

But this is precisely where Binance’s main problem lies. The exchange is trying to prove that after the fine, CZ’s departure, and the restructuring of internal processes, it has become a different company. However, the new allegations around Iran once again bring it back to the old question: has Binance really managed to free itself from the legacy of its previous growth model, or are old sanctions and AML risks simply catching up with it in a new form?