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.
Issued Friday through Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the order bars U.S. financial institutions from processing funds transfers to or from MEXC. It takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, rather than immediately upon announcement.
The measure forms part of a broader campaign called Operation Economic Outcast. It uses a provision of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, rather than a standard sanctions designation.
FinCEN’s allegations against MEXC
FinCEN named MEXC a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with Russian illicit finance. The agency said the exchange moved at least $16 billion connected to illicit activity between May 2021 and May 2026, including nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion. It also identified $232 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities.
According to FinCEN, MEXC 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. The agency also said MEXC processed roughly $200 million linked to the A7A5 stablecoin and about $22 million benefiting Iran’s central bank and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Despite publicly claiming anti-money-laundering controls and barring users in jurisdictions including Iran and North Korea, MEXC had “severe deficiencies” in its compliance arrangements, FinCEN said.
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.
Broader action targeting Russian and Iranian crypto networks
“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 efforts to use digital assets to evade sanctions.
The MEXC order followed other Treasury measures described in the report. In October 2026, the department designated Russia’s A7 Network a transnational criminal organization and proposed cutting its front companies off from U.S. finance. Treasury flagged more than $179 billion in transactions through the network’s ruble-backed A7A5 token, much of it routed through Garantex and Grinex.
The campaign also extended to Iran’s crypto sector. Treasury gained authority to sanction anyone operating in that sector and blacklisted Iranian exchange Nobitex over its role in funneling crypto to the IRGC, according to the report.
Decrypt described the MEXC order as part of FinCEN’s increasing use of this legal tool to restrict crypto infrastructure operating outside the correspondent banking system.
Original source: Decrypt, published November 7, 2026, at 05:06:03 UTC+8.