Treasury Cuts Crypto Exchange MEXC Off From US Financial System
The U.S. Treasury's FinCEN has issued an order cutting crypto exchange MEXC Global off from the American financial system, accusing it of facilitating at least $16 billion in illicit transactions.
The U.S. Treasury Department has moved to sever crypto exchange MEXC Global from the American financial system, accusing it of facilitating at least $16 billion in illicit transactions tied to Iran, North Korea and Russia. The action, part of a broader effort dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, bars U.S. financial institutions from processing any funds transfers to or from the exchange.
In an order issued Friday through its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Treasury said MEXC, one of the world's 20 largest crypto exchanges, served as a major conduit for sanctions evasion and cybercrime. The order takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Financial institutions cannot have it both ways: Either you support the Iranian regime, or you have access to the U.S. financial system.
Illicit Transactions
Founded in 2018, MEXC processes more than $1 billion in daily transactions, holds around $5 billion in reserves, and offers more than 3,000 tokens. Between May 2021 and May 2026, the platform moved at least $16 billion connected to illicit activity, including nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion.
FinCEN cited severe deficiencies in MEXC's anti-money-laundering controls, noting it transacted with sanctioned Russian exchanges Garantex and Grinex as recently as June 2026. The agency named MEXC a 'primary money laundering concern' in connection with Russian illicit finance.
Despite publicly claiming anti-money-laundering controls and barring users in places like Iran and North Korea, MEXC was still processing roughly $200 million linked to the A7A5 stablecoin and about $22 million benefiting Iran's central bank and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Broader Sanctions Crackdown
The action extends a sanctions-evasion crackdown that has targeted Russia's A7 Network and Iran's Nobitex. The department last month designated Russia's A7 Network a transnational criminal organization and proposed cutting its front companies off from U.S. finance, flagging more than $179 billion in transactions through its ruble-backed A7A5 token.
The same campaign has reached into Iran's crypto sector, where Treasury gained sweeping authority to sanction anyone operating in it and blacklisted the Iranian exchange Nobitex over its role in funneling crypto to the IRGC.
The order uses a provision of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act rather than a standard sanctions designation, a tool FinCEN has increasingly reached for to cut off crypto infrastructure that operates outside the correspondent banking system.
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