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Source: https://jcfa.org/how-crypto-forensics-is-dismantling-the-irgc/
How Crypto Forensics Is Dismantling the IRGC
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Ella Rosenberg - The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has increasingly pivoted toward cryptocurrency to sustain their operations. While initially perceived by illicit actors as a financial haven shielded from sovereign governments, this move has inadvertently handed global law enforcement agencies a powerful intelligence-gathering and disruption tool. Blockchain technology is inherently a transparent and publicly accessible digital ledger. Blockchain records transactions in perpetuity, cryptographically preserving the network's financial history for investigators equipped with the appropriate analytical tools. This has given rise to the specialized field of crypto forensics that enables law enforcement agencies to penetrate the veil of digital wallets, map complex financial networks, and dismantle the economic infrastructure supporting organizations such as the IRGC. In September 2025, Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) ordered the seizure of 187 cryptocurrency wallets linked to the IRGC after blockchain analysis indicated that the addresses had received $1.5 billion worth of Tether (USDT), a dollar-pegged stablecoin. In July 2026, an additional Israeli operation sanctioned 37 digital wallets. On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on four major Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges - Nobitex, Bitpin, Ramzinex, and Wallex - for their roles in facilitating sanctions evasion and terrorist financing. The action followed on-chain analysis indicating that IRGC-associated addresses accounted for more than 50% of the total value received by Iran's $7.78 billion cryptocurrency ecosystem in late 2025. The writer is an Iran and financial terrorism expert and a senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Center.