The US Treasury imposed financial sanctions on eight Canadian money-service companies that it alleged conducted business with sanctioned Iranian entities, according to a Friday statement reported by Cointelegraph.
The companies facilitated exchanges of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, enabling international transactions, Treasury said. The sanctions seek to isolate the firms from the dollar-based financial system.
Original report published November 7, 2026, at 19:10:47 UTC+08:00.
Treasury alleges links to sanctioned exchanges and addresses
According to Treasury, the businesses facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges and with digital asset addresses associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”
Treasury said the actions were coordinated with FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence unit. It also alleged that some entities covered by the action had changed their names and addresses to evade detection.
A sanctions-enforcement case, not an adoption measure
The designations continued Treasury’s campaign against financial networks linked to Iran. Cointelegraph had reported in August that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was targeting crypto exchanges facilitating transfers to the IRGC. At that time, Bessent said the US planned to increase economic pressure on Iran by focusing on networks funding its regime “in dollars, rials, or crypto.”
Treasury described Friday’s action as part of its effort to disrupt Iran’s alleged exploitation of digital assets to fund terrorism, human rights abuses and attacks on US personnel and allies.
For crypto usage analysis, the report identifies an alleged cross-border conversion channel and the sanctions risks surrounding it. It does not provide transaction volumes, user counts or a comparison period that would establish growth in adoption. The eight companies represent the scope of this enforcement action, not a measure of overall crypto use in Iran or Canada.
