Iran crypto Exchange cryptocurrency exchange has been built and controlled by members of one of the Islamic Republic's most powerful political dynasties, and has been used to process hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned entities including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran's central bank, according to a Reuters investigation published on Monday. Nobitex, which claims eleven million users and handles an estimated 70 percent of all cryptocurrency transactions in Iran, was founded by brothers Ali and Mohammad Kharrazi, who built the platform under an alternative family surname, Aghamir, concealing their elite origins even from close colleagues and professional acquaintances within the company. The revelation places one of the world's most actively sanctioned states at the center of a sophisticated crypto-based parallel financial system that has allowed blacklisted institutions to move funds outside the reach of Western economic restrictions while simultaneously serving tens of millions of ordinary Iranian citizens locked out of conventional international banking.

The timing of Reuters' investigation adds particular urgency to its findings. The IRGC has further consolidated its control over Iran's economy and security apparatus since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a February airstrike at the outset of the US and Israeli war in Iran. Khamenei's son Mojtaba has since succeeded his father as supreme leader, and the Kharrazi family's connections to the new leadership are both deep and direct. The brothers' grandfather, a religious scholar and ayatollah, once taught Mojtaba Khamenei and later served on the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for choosing Iran's supreme leaders. The Kharrazi clan is related by marriage to all three supreme leaders of the Islamic Republic, from revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to the late Ali Khamenei and now to Mojtaba. The family's position at the intersection of religious authority, political power, and now financial infrastructure represents a concentration of influence that Western sanctions authorities have apparently not yet moved to address.

Nobitex has avoided being designated by the United States and its allies despite its scale and the sanctioned transactions flowing through it, a gap in enforcement that Senator Elizabeth Warren described as a flashing red light when Reuters presented her with its findings. Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said the investigation demonstrated that adversaries are using digital assets as an alternative to the US-led global financial system, moving billions easily because too many services across the crypto ecosystem lack the basic controls needed to prevent money laundering and sanctions evasion. The Trump administration, responding to detailed questions from Reuters about the investigation's findings, said it was moving aggressively with what it called Economic Fury to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and degrade Tehran's ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds, but made no specific reference to Nobitex in its response.

How the Kharrazi Brothers Built Nobitex and Concealed Their Elite Family Origins

The story of how Nobitex became Iran's dominant cryptocurrency platform begins at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, the country's most prestigious technical institution and the equivalent of MIT in the Iranian academic context. Brothers Ali, born in 1986, and Mohammad, born in 1992, along with a third co-founder named Amir Hosein Rad, studied at Sharif before launching what would become the country's largest crypto exchange. From the beginning, the brothers operated under the family name Aghamir rather than Kharrazi, presenting themselves publicly and professionally in a way that gave no indication of their connection to one of Iran's most powerful political dynasties. Rad served as the public-facing chief executive, Ali was the other visible leader, and Mohammad contributed his expertise in blockchain technology as the platform's technical architect.

In previous interactions with colleagues, employees, and business associates, the brothers maintained their alternative surname so consistently that most people who worked closely with them had no idea they were members of the Kharrazi family. Reuters interviewed nine former employees and professional acquaintances of the brothers, and found that only one learned of their family ties directly from them. Another discovered the connection through independent research. Among those most surprised by the revelation was a former coworker who described Mohammad as a close friend of many years standing and expressed genuine shock when Reuters disclosed the Kharrazi family connection. A former employee who described himself as openly critical of the Iranian regime said the discovery of the brothers' true family name made him afraid, recalling that he and his colleagues had made comments that could have created serious personal risk had their employer's family background been known.

Reuters could not determine the specific reasons why the brothers chose to consistently conceal their family origins, and Nobitex did not answer questions about the Kharrazi connection in its response to Reuters' inquiries. Notably, a brief message signed by the elder brother Ali came from an email address that contained the Kharrazi name, a detail that sits in tension with the company's public insistence that the brothers use the Aghamir name in the ordinary course of their lives. The company maintained in its statement that the brothers had not changed their identity or used an alternative identity, a characterization that the breadth of their consistent use of the Aghamir surname across professional and public contexts makes difficult to accept at face value.

How Nobitex Functions as a Sanctions Evasion Tool and What Blockchain Analysis Reveals

The operational picture of how Nobitex functions within Iran's parallel financial system emerges from a combination of blockchain analysis conducted by crypto intelligence firm Crystal Intelligence, interviews with four private financial investigators, and accounts from six former Nobitex employees who told Reuters they were aware of state funds subject to Western sanctions passing through the exchange. Crystal Intelligence, which has been investigating Iranian cryptocurrency flows for more than four years, found that Nobitex has processed between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned groups including the IRGC and Iran's central bank. The exchange serves as a bridge to global crypto markets, allowing sanctioned Iranian state institutions to route money to allies and partners outside the conventional banking system that Western sanctions have largely closed to Iran.

The scale of Nobitex's ordinary user base creates a structural challenge for enforcement authorities attempting to isolate the sanctioned transactions from legitimate civilian use. With eleven million users representing more than ten percent of Iran's population, Nobitex is not a niche platform serving exclusively elite or state-connected actors. Ordinary Iranians facing a severely devalued rial, rampant inflation, and exclusion from international banking use the exchange to buy, hold, and transfer cryptocurrency as a practical tool for financial survival. Nick Smart, chief intelligence officer at Crystal Intelligence, articulated the enforcement dilemma clearly, noting that because so much of Nobitex's activity belongs to normal Iranians, it is extremely difficult to separate the regime's use of the platform from the legitimate civilian transactions that make up the bulk of its volume. That complexity has likely contributed to the exchange's ability to avoid Western designation despite its documented connections to sanctioned entities.

Throughout the ongoing US-Israeli war in Iran, Nobitex has continued processing transactions even during government-imposed nationwide internet shutdowns and widespread power outages in Tehran, according to three separate blockchain analysis firms tracking the platform's activity. During that period, Nobitex processed more than 100 million dollars in transactions, approximately 20 percent of its usual volume, demonstrating a resilience that reflects both the practical demand for its services among ordinary Iranians and the institutional commitment to maintaining operations that serves the state entities using the platform for sanctions evasion purposes. Nobitex denied in its statement to Reuters that it has any direct government connections or assists the state in any way, saying that any illicit funds moving through the exchange do so without management approval or awareness and that any transactions involving state entities are far below the estimates shared by investigators.