TRM Labs' comprehensive report, published on Wednesday, claims that CoinEx acted as a significant gateway for Iran's crypto sector. The analytics firm states it traced more than £3.03 billion (calculated from $3.84 billion USD at the current exchange rate) in flows between CoinEx and various sanctioned Iranian entities. A substantial portion of these alleged transactions, approximately £2.13 billion, reportedly involved Nobitex, Iran's largest crypto exchange.
The report further suggests a coordinated relationship, rather than organic market activity, pointing to CoinEx's direct transaction exposure with over 60 Iranian crypto platforms. Alarmingly, TRM Labs also identified CoinEx's alleged exposure to terrorist-linked entities, including £4.74 million in transactions with wallets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and £295,961 linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
These revelations follow the US Treasury's recent sanctioning of several Iranian crypto exchanges, including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, earlier this month, as part of its ongoing campaign against the Iranian government. All these entities were cited in TRM Labs' analysis.
In a robust statement issued on Thursday, CoinEx firmly rejected TRM Labs' findings. The exchange asserted it has "never established any commercial relationship with Iranian government-related entities, Iranian domestic exchanges" nor "provided any form of active assistance to Iranian government agencies, Revolutionary Guard-related entities, or other sanctioned parties."
CoinEx emphasised the inherent transparency of blockchain transactions, arguing that the mere passage of funds through a platform 'on-chain' does not imply awareness, support, or participation in the related activity. The exchange also questioned the reliability of single-source blockchain analytics, stating that "data from different third-party blockchain analytics platforms varies significantly, and data from any single platform should not be treated as definitive."
Despite its strong rebuttal, CoinEx confirmed it has initiated a review process and is moving to discontinue all Iran-related business activities. This ongoing controversy underscores the complex regulatory landscape facing cryptocurrency exchanges globally, particularly when dealing with regions under international sanctions.
