Reuters: Nobitex Founded by Elite Iranian Political Family, Handles 70% of Nation's Crypto Activity

According to a Reuters investigation published Friday, Nobitex, Iran’s dominant crypto exchange with roughly 11 million users, was founded by brothers Ali and Mohammad Kharrazi, members of a family with close ties to Iran’s supreme leaders. The brothers registered the company in 2018 under an alternate surname while other relatives publicly used the Kharrazi name. Their grandfather sat on the Assembly of Experts that selects Iran’s supreme leader, and their father founded the Iranian political organization Hezbollah and helped staff the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the 1979 revolution.

Reuters documented significant illicit fund flows through the platform. Elliptic identified around $366 million in suspect flows, while Chainalysis estimated closer to $68 million. A separate Elliptic analysis found that wallets controlled by Iran’s Central Bank sent approximately $347 million to Nobitex in the first half of 2025. Despite handling roughly 70% of Iran’s crypto activity, Nobitex was not included in U.S. Treasury sanctions announced on April 28 targeting Iran’s shadow banking infrastructure. Nobitex denied any government affiliation and characterized illicit funds as a “very small fraction of overall volume.”