U.S. Sanctions Iran’s Interior Minister, Security Chiefs and Two U.K.-Registered Crypto Exchanges Over Protest Crackdown

The United States on Jan. 30 imposed sanctions on Iran’s interior minister, several senior security commanders and two U.K.-registered cryptocurrency exchanges, accusing them of helping orchestrate and finance a crackdown that U.S. officials say has killed thousands of peaceful protesters since late 2025.

In an unusually sharp statement, the Treasury Department described Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces as “murderous” and called them “a key entity responsible for the deaths of thousands of peaceful protestors.” The interior minister, Eskandar Momeni Kalagari, was singled out for overseeing those forces and an apparatus that Washington says has carried out mass killings, arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances.

Sanctions expand to crypto exchanges

The measures expand U.S. human rights and corruption sanctions on Iranian officials and, for the first time, designate entire digital asset exchanges as part of Iran’s financial sector and a funding channel for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The move came one day after European Union governments formally listed the IRGC as a terrorist organization, signaling a rare moment of transatlantic alignment on Iran policy.

Treasury officials said the action is intended to raise the personal and financial costs for Iranian leaders directing the response to nationwide protests that erupted in December over economic grievances and quickly turned into calls for the end of the Islamic Republic.

“The regime has chosen to squander what remains of the nation’s oil revenues on nuclear weapons development, missiles, and terrorist proxies around the world, instead of building a prosperous future for its people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement. He added that the United States would “continue to target Iranian networks and corrupt elites that enrich themselves at the expense of the Iranian people, including attempts to exploit digital assets to evade sanctions.”

Under the designations, all property and interests in property of the named individuals and entities that are in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons are frozen. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from doing business with them, and foreign banks and companies risk secondary sanctions if they knowingly facilitate significant transactions for those listed.

Officials and commanders targeted

Momeni, as interior minister, is responsible for organizing domestic security and oversees the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Treasury designated him under Executive Order 13553, a 2010 authority targeting officials involved in serious human rights abuses in Iran. The department said that under his authority, security forces have been responsible for “mass killings, arrests, and forced disappearances” during the current protest wave.

Washington also targeted a group of commanders from the IRGC and the Law Enforcement Forces in specific provinces that have seen some of the heaviest violence.

• Majid Khademi, head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, was sanctioned for what Treasury called an instrumental role in suppressing protests through a “national campaign of mass violence, arbitrary detentions, and intimidation.”
• Ghorban Mohammad Valizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Seyyad al-Shohada Corps in Tehran province, was cited in connection with some of the deadliest incidents in the capital.
• Hossein Zare Kamali, the IRGC commander in Hamadan province, was sanctioned after allegations that families of those killed were forced to bury relatives without public funerals and, in some cases, told to pay money to recover bodies. Treasury said security forces there “sought to ransom bodies of dead protesters.”
• Hamid Damghani, the IRGC commander in Gilan province, was designated over what the department called some of the regime’s “worst atrocities,” including a deadly incident in the Rasht bazaar in early January in which security forces allegedly opened fire on unarmed demonstrators fleeing a fire.
• Mehdi Hajian, commander of the Law Enforcement Forces in Kermanshah province, was accused of coordinating with IRGC and Basij militia units in early crackdowns that included mass killings and sexual violence against protesters, according to Treasury.

All of the commanders were designated under Executive Order 13553 for acting on behalf of the IRGC or the Law Enforcement Forces, both of which have been under U.S. sanctions in various forms for more than a decade.

Competing death-toll estimates amid an information blackout

Rights groups and independent media say the current protest cycle, which began around Dec. 28, 2025, is the deadliest in the Islamic Republic’s history. Iran’s Martyrs Foundation and state media have acknowledged just over 3,100 deaths, including both civilians and security personnel. Iranian and international human rights groups have documented thousands of additional killings and disappearances, and a network of medical workers and morgue employees cited in a recent investigation by The Guardian estimated that the true death toll could exceed 30,000.

Researchers with the group Human Rights Activists in Iran say they have verified several thousand deaths and are investigating many more cases in a context of mass arrests, pressure on families and an information blackout.

Since Jan. 8, authorities have imposed a near-total internet shutdown across large parts of the country, disrupting both international connections and segments of Iran’s own domestic network. Major cities including Tehran, Isfahan and Kermanshah have experienced prolonged outages or severe throttling. Treasury linked the blackout to the same security organs it sanctioned, arguing that it is intended to conceal abuses and hinder coordination among demonstrators.

Zanjani and the exchanges

Alongside the security officials, the Jan. 30 action targets Babak Morteza Zanjani, a well-known Iranian businessman who became a symbol of high-level corruption a decade ago. Zanjani built a sprawling empire in oil, transportation, hospitality and finance before being convicted in 2016 of embezzling billions of dollars in oil revenue from the National Iranian Oil Company. He was sentenced to death at the time, but Iranian courts later commuted the sentence.

Treasury said that after his release from prison, Zanjani returned to prominence as a financier for projects benefiting the IRGC and as a money launderer for the state. He was designated under Executive Order 13902 for operating in Iran’s financial sector.

The same authority was used to list two digital asset exchanges, Zedcex Exchange Ltd. and Zedxion Exchange Ltd., both registered in the United Kingdom. Treasury said the platforms processed “significant volumes” of transactions for IRGC-linked parties while presenting themselves as legitimate, U.K.-registered businesses.

Zedcex, incorporated in August 2022, has handled more than $94 billion in crypto transactions, according to Treasury and independent blockchain analysis. A portion of those flows—around $1 billion, by one outside estimate—appears tied to wallets associated with the IRGC and other sanctioned entities. Zedxion, registered in May 2021, initially listed Zanjani as its director in U.K. corporate filings and also processed funds for IRGC-linked wallets, officials said.

Both exchanges were designated not only for operating in Iran’s financial sector but also under the United States’ primary counterterrorism sanctions authority, Executive Order 13224, as amended, which covers those who provide material support to designated terrorist organizations. The United States designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.

Treasury said this is the first time it has sanctioned a digital asset exchange specifically for operating in the Iranian financial sector, marking an expansion of its long-running efforts to disrupt Iran-linked cyber operations, ransomware groups and shadow banking networks that rely on cryptocurrencies.

Wider implications and Europe’s parallel move

The action is likely to reverberate beyond Iran. Compliance officers at global crypto platforms and traditional banks have been watching for signs that regulators would move from blacklisting individual wallets and mixers to targeting entire exchanges that serve sanctioned jurisdictions. The U.S. move increases the risk that platforms perceived as doing business with Iran could face exclusion from dollar-based finance, even if they are headquartered outside the United States.

In Europe, the new U.S. sanctions landed as governments were tightening their own stance. On Jan. 29, EU foreign ministers unanimously agreed to add the Revolutionary Guard to the bloc’s terrorist list, triggering asset freezes and travel bans across member states and criminalizing material support to the group. The EU also expanded its human rights sanctions to cover additional Iranian officials and entities accused of abuses and censorship.

“Regimes that kill their own populations must face consequences,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after the decision, comparing the IRGC’s listing to those of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

Iran has condemned the measures as illegal and politically motivated, summoning European ambassadors and threatening to designate European armed forces as terrorist organizations in response. Officials in Tehran have not publicly detailed the financial impact of the latest U.S. sanctions but have previously argued that such steps hurt ordinary Iranians more than the state.

An uncertain test of sanctions

The effectiveness of sanctions in changing behavior in Iran remains contested. Past rounds have strained the country’s banking sector, reduced oil exports and complicated access to foreign currency, while also fueling inflation and shortages. At the same time, the Iranian state and affiliated networks have adapted by developing complex oil-smuggling operations, front companies and, increasingly, digital asset channels such as those now under U.S. sanctions.

In its statement, Treasury emphasized that the goal of sanctions “is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior,” and noted that U.S. law provides for removal from sanctions lists if conditions are met.

For now, the latest designations underscore a widening gap between Iran’s rulers and much of the international community over the handling of the protests. As authorities seek to contain dissent through force and information controls, Washington and its European allies are betting that tightening the financial noose on individual commanders and their funding networks will increase pressure on a government already facing deep economic strain and profound domestic unrest.