The US Department of Treasury on Friday ordered American financial institutions to stop processing funds to or from MEXC Global, a crypto exchange it accuses of facilitating at least $16 billion in transactions tied to sanctions evasion, cybercrime and other illicit activity.
The order came through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, and takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Treasury has placed the step under Operation Economic Outcast.
FinCEN reviewed activity from May 2021 through May 2026 and found links to groups in Iran, Russia and North Korea. Nearly $1.5 billion related to Russian sanctions evasion, including $232 million exchanged directly with parties blacklisted by the US, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The agency labeled MEXC a “primary money laundering concern” where Russian illicit finance is concerned. In its press release, Treasury described the platform as one of the 20 largest crypto exchanges anywhere and as a major conduit for sanctions evasion and cybercrime.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tied the action to Tehran. “Financial institutions cannot have it both ways: Either you support the Iranian regime, or you have access to the U.S. financial system,” Bessent said in a statement, vowing to keep severing the regime’s “economic lifelines” and its attempts to use digital assets to dodge sanctions.
Few crypto platforms operate at MEXC’s scale. Founded in 2018, it lists upwards of 3,000 tokens, holds about $5 billion in reserves and sees more than $1 billion change hands daily, according to FinCEN. Publicly, the exchange promotes anti-money-laundering safeguards and prohibits users in countries such as Iran and North Korea. FinCEN found otherwise and said its compliance suffered from “severe deficiencies.”
Particular counterparties stand out in the order. Garantex, a sanctioned Russian exchange, received about $129 million from MEXC, while its successor Grinex took another $4.1 million. Contact with both continued into June 2026, over four years after Garantex first landed on a sanctions list. Roughly $200 million touched the A7A5 stablecoin, and around $22 million benefited Iran’s central bank and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Last month, Russia’s A7 Network was designated a transnational criminal organization, and Treasury proposed severing its front companies from US finance. Its ruble-backed A7A5 token has pushed through more than $179 billion in transactions, much of it via Garantex and Grinex. Separately, a campaign announced Monday and nicknamed Economic D-Day by Bessent gives Treasury authority to sanction anyone worldwide working in Iran’s digital asset sector.
