$676 million moved from Shelbit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, to Binance in what Reuters is reporting as a sanctions-evasion operation connected to Iranian state entities. Shelbit processed more than $4 billion in total since May 2024 through a network Reuters links to Iranian gambling sites, Iran's central bank, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Binance-directed flows represent roughly 17 percent of that $4 billion gross throughput.
The network Reuters mapped
Reuters identifies three counterparty types in Shelbit's alleged network: Iranian gambling platforms, Iran's central bank, and the IRGC. No per-node volume breakdown is reported. The direction of the money is the point: $676 million of that network's output ended at Binance, the exchange behind the $BNB token.
A structure like this typically works by placing an offshore intermediary between sanctioned originators and a large liquid venue. Shelbit plays the intermediary. The question the Reuters investigation puts to Binance is what its compliance systems recorded when those funds arrived, and when.
What the reporting leaves open
Reuters does not specify an end date for the flows and does not confirm whether transfers from Shelbit to Binance are ongoing or have stopped. No response from Shelbit or Binance appears in the available reporting.
The IRGC connection is the most legally sensitive of the three reported network nodes. Flows traceable to the IRGC carry significant sanctions-liability exposure for any exchange that processed or received them. Shelbit's $4 billion throughput since May 2024 is a reported figure; how regulators treat the $676 million portion directed at Binance is the fact this story still needs.
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