UK Cracks Down: Crypto Exchange Linked to Iran’s Military Faces Shutdown

UK authorities are moving to shut down a cryptocurrency exchange after blockchain analytics revealed nearly 90% of its 2024 transaction volume was tied to Iran's most powerful military organization, raising urgent concerns about digital asset platforms being exploited for sanctions evasion.

A Billion Dollars And A Fake Boss

TRM Labs, which tracks cryptocurrency flows, reported that Zedxion Exchange and a related platform called Zedcex moved roughly $1 billion tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In 2024, IRGC-linked payments made up about 87% of all transactions the two exchanges handled. Even as that share fell to roughly 48% in 2025, the raw dollar amounts connected to the Iranian military group remained massive.

Now the UK is shutting the exchange down.

Britain’s Companies House — the government body that registers businesses — has started a compulsory strike-off against Zedxion Exchange Ltd. Authorities say the company filed false information, including listing a director who never existed.

Stock Photo, Fake Name, Real Money

The fictitious director was registered under the name Elizabeth Newman, listed as a citizen of the Dominican Republic.

An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that the woman behind the name was likely manufactured entirely — her image in company marketing videos traced back to a stock photo.

Before Newman appeared in company records, a man named Babak Morteza held the director position. His details matched those of Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman who had previously been sentenced to death in Iran for stealing state oil funds.

That sentence was reduced in 2024, and Zanjani resumed business operations. Morteza was listed as director and the person with significant control of Zedxion from October 2021 to August 2022.

Zanjani is also said to head DotOne Holding Group, a conglomerate with operations across cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, logistics, and telecommunications — sectors that have been used in the past to sidestep international sanctions.

The UK crackdown follows US sanctions imposed in January by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Both Zedxion and Zedcex were named in that action. OFAC said Zanjani helped fund projects supporting the IRGC and the Iranian government more broadly.

Company filings for the two exchanges also showed dormant accounts, a detail that stood in sharp contrast to the enormous transaction volumes blockchain analysts traced through them.

The UK passed the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act in 2023, giving Companies House new authority to verify the identities of directors and check that registered businesses were set up for lawful purposes.

The Zedxion case marks one of the more visible uses of those powers.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView