The U.S. Treasury Department issued an order to cut crypto exchange MEXC Global off from the American financial system, alleging that it facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions tied to Iran, North Korea and Russia.
According to Decrypt’s report, published November 7, 2026, at 05:06:03 UTC+8, the order was issued Friday through Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It bars U.S. financial institutions from processing funds transfers to or from MEXC and takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, rather than immediately.
The action forms part of a broader Treasury effort called Operation Economic Outcast.
FinCEN’s allegations against MEXC
FinCEN named MEXC a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with Russian illicit finance. The agency said that between May 2021 and May 2026, the exchange moved at least $16 billion connected to illicit activity. That included nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion, with $232 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities.
Despite MEXC’s public claims of anti-money-laundering controls and restrictions on users in jurisdictions including Iran and North Korea, FinCEN alleged that its compliance had “severe deficiencies.” The agency said the exchange:
- Continued transacting with sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex and its successor, Grinex, as recently as June 2026—more than four years after Garantex was first designated.
- Processed roughly $200 million linked to the A7A5 stablecoin.
- Processed about $22 million benefiting Iran’s central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Founded in 2018, MEXC was described in the report as one of the world’s 20 largest crypto exchanges. According to FinCEN, it processes more than $1 billion in daily transactions, holds around $5 billion in reserves and offers more than 3,000 tokens.
“Financial institutions cannot have it both ways: Either you support the Iranian regime, or you have access to the U.S. financial system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. He pledged to continue severing the regime’s “economic lifelines” and its attempts to use digital assets to evade sanctions.
Part of a wider sanctions-evasion crackdown
The MEXC order follows other Treasury actions involving Russian and Iranian crypto networks. In the month preceding the report, Treasury designated Russia’s A7 Network a transnational criminal organization and proposed cutting its front companies off from U.S. finance. It flagged more than $179 billion in transactions through the network’s ruble-backed A7A5 token, much of it routed through Garantex and Grinex.
The report also described expanded Treasury authority to sanction anyone operating in Iran’s crypto sector and the blacklisting of Iranian exchange Nobitex over its role in funneling crypto to the IRGC.
The MEXC order uses a provision of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, rather than a standard sanctions designation. Decrypt reported that FinCEN has increasingly used this tool to cut off crypto infrastructure operating outside the correspondent banking system.