US Treasury Sanctions BitBank for Iran Sanctions Evasion Network

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated cryptocurrency exchange BitBank as part of a digital asset infrastructure used to evade Iran sanctions. OFAC stated on September 17 that BitBank is linked to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani and was utilized in transferring hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Blink Wallet reported that funds from dozens of custodial accounts were drained through a breach, with the company promising full compensation. CryptoTimes noted that services were temporarily suspended for investigation. Meanwhile, Japan's JPYC stablecoin traded at over 3 yen per unit shortly after listing on Upbit on September 17, significantly exceeding its peg of 1 yen and reaching 27.2 won (approximately 3 times the global price of 8.81 won).

The XRP Ledger's BatchV1_1 amendment, allowing up to eight transactions to be bundled into a single operation, may take effect as early as September 29 after gaining majority validator support on September 15, triggering a 14-day countdown. RippleX's Ayo Akinyele mentioned that asset management firms and major projects are preparing for this feature.

Tether reportedly issued $500 million in USDT on Solana within an hour, which CryptoBriefing described as a case of expanding stablecoin liquidity on the network without confirmed price or volume changes. Polygon is advancing its permanent burn of 100 million POL tokens, with the contract active on testnet and awaiting final approval from the Security Council before deployment on mainnet. AMBCrypto reported that whales sold over 30 million POL.

Malicious actors storing command-and-control (C2) information and next-step payload locations on public blockchains increased by 420% in one year, according to Chainalysis, which dubbed this method 'Blockchain Dead Drops.' The firm noted the blockchain itself isn't being abused but rather the immutable data layer is being exploited for hard-to-seize information.

At least five countries reported fuel shortages and rationing as of September 19, with Brent crude nearing $110 per barrel. BeInCrypto reported that the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively blocked following Iran's retaliation, though specific countries affected or impact on risk assets were not detailed.

Zcash (ZEC) price surged over $1,500 in three weeks, up 100%, while Grayscale's ZEC ETF assets under management approached $915 million. CryptoSlate reported that AUM was approximately $85 million short of the $1 billion mark as of September 28, when Grayscale announced a 3-for-1 stock split for ZCSH.

Iran announced it could establish a no-go zone around the Strait of Hormuz to restrict vessel passage and impose sanctions on ships, with Mohsen Rezaei of Iran's Supreme National Security Council stating this plan during a September 6 state TV broadcast. AP reported that specific implementation details remain unclear.