An internal investigation by cryptocurrency exchange Binance found that Iran accessed more than 1,500 accounts during the past two years, resulting in about $1.7 billion flowing from two Binance accounts to Iranian entities linked to terrorist groups, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
One of the accounts belonged to a Binance vendor, the Times reported, citing company records and other documents.
Internal reports from Binance's financial-crime investigations team connected accounts registered to Chinese clients to digital wallets that U.S. and Israeli authorities said were used by Iran to finance its proxies, according to the Journal.
In total, $1.7 billion flowed during 2024 and 2025 from the accounts, funding Iran-backed groups that included Houthi terrorists in Yemen, the Journal reported.
The investigations team included experts in sanctions and counterterrorism financing brought in as part of Binance's reform efforts.
Binance fired or suspended at least four employees involved in the investigation, citing "violations of company protocol" related to the handling of client data, according to the Times and three people familiar with the matter.
The findings surfaced as Binance continues to operate under scrutiny after pleading guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. sanctions and anti-money-laundering laws.
The company agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty and admitted it had allowed customers from Iran to use its platform.
Internal warnings about the Iranian-linked transactions emerged last year, months before President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.
Zhao served four months in federal prison in 2024 for his role in the company's violations.
By analyzing crypto transactions, Binance investigators determined that accounts on the exchange had transferred funds to entities tied to Iran, which the U.S. government has designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
As part of its 2023 plea agreement, Binance agreed to alert U.S. authorities to any lawbreaking detected on its platform.
The most significant connection identified by investigators involved a Hong Kong business called Blessed Trust, which served as a fiat partner to Binance, providing payments and other services.
In a message reviewed by the Times, Blessed Trust listed its top five customers by revenue, all Binance entities.
Over the past two years, investigators found that $1.2 billion in crypto flowed from Blessed Trust's Binance account to Iranian-linked entities, according to the Times.
The investigators identified ties between those entities and crypto wallets controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.
A Binance representative, Rachel Conlan, said in a statement to the Times that the company acted on the concerns raised by its investigators and did not find evidence of sanctions violations.
The accounts associated with the $1.7 billion in transactions were removed, she said, and authorities were notified.
"Any suggestion that Binance knowingly allowed sanctionable activity to continue unchecked is incorrect and defamatory," Conlan said.
Conlan also said the investigators who examined the Iranian transactions were not suspended or terminated for "raising compliance concerns."
"Certain individuals" involved in the investigation were disciplined "in connection with the unauthorized disclosure of confidential client information," she said.
Conlan said there were "multiple intermediary wallets with more than three degrees of separation" between Blessed Trust and the "wallets alleged to be associated with" the IRGC.
She added that Blessed Trust was "one of several vendors for Binance" and that the exchange had no control over it.
Binance stopped using the company as a vendor in January, she said.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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