Shelbit exchange out of UAE now sanctioned by OFAC

Less than a month after Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, fined and issued a cease and desist order for un-licensed exchange Shelbit crypto exchange, on August 7th the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a series of crypto services, including Shelbit, for supporting the Iranian regime.

Chainalysis noted that In Chainalysis products, the sanctioned addresses are labeled as follows: OFAC SDN Siavash Kayvanpour 2026-08-07, OFAC SDN Crypto Home DMCC 2026-08-07, OFAC SDN Shelbit Exchange 2026-08-07, OFAC SDN Aban Tether Exchange 2026-08-07.

Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (“VARA”) had issued a Notice of Fines following a cease and desist order in 2025, to Shelbit General Trading L.L.C operating under Shelbit or Shelbit Exchange. The action was taken after a routine market wide monitoring which identified that Shelbit was continuing to offer virtual asset services to customers in and from Dubai without a regulatory license. The entity was onboarding users without mandatory Know-Your-Customer (“KYC”) checks as per UAE law; and marketing its services in Dubai without authorization.

OFAC noted that while UAE based Shelbit General Trading LLC (General Trading) operating commercially as “Shelbit Exchange, has been under enforcement actions by VARA both in January 2025, and July 2026, it states that the General Trading remains in business. General Trading is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for being owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Shelbit.

As per OFAC Siavash Kayvanpour (Kayvanpour), who was born in Iran, has additional citizenship from Dominica and Afghanistan, and has resided in the United Arab Emirates, operates a multi-nation network of companies that support illicit digital currency activity. Kayvanpour, through his Republic of Georgia-based company, SHPS Shelbit (Shelbit), operates the Shelbit Exchange (Shelbit Exchange).

OFAC report also noted that Digital currency addresses belonging to the IRGC have sent the equivalent of over $1 million in digital assets to Shelbit Exchange digital currency addresses. More than the equivalent of $2 million has also been transferred from Shelbit Exchange addresses to IRGC digital currency addresses.

Additionally, digital currency addresses belonging to or controlled by Kayvanpour have sent over $2 million in digital assets to U.S.-designated Nobitex. Kayvanpour is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of the IRGC and Nobitex, which are both persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224.

OFAC nadded that Shelbit services a large Persian-language gambling website network run by a pair of Iranian influencers who live luxurious lives outside of Iran. Tens of millions of dollars of this gambling network’s digital assets were laundered through Shelbit. Although the two Iranian influencers were convicted of illegal gambling in Iran in 2023, their gambling websites still have access to Iran’s online payments systems, which the Central Bank of Iran tightly regulates. The Iranian regime’s willingness to allow this gambling network to operate highlights its hypocrisy and corruption.

Furthermore Shelbit, Kayvanpour owns Poland-based Shelbit Technologies Ltd Spółka Z Ograniczoną Odpowiedzialnością W Likwidacji (Shelbit Technologies Ltd). Kayvanpour also is the sole manager of UAE-based Crypto Home DMCC (Crypto Home) and UAE-based NFT Home DMCC (NFT Home). In January 2025, VARA took enforcement action against Crypto Home.

Shelbit denied the allegations, saying it “categorically rejects any suggestion” it knowingly participated in money laundering, terrorist financing or sanctions evasion, adding it ceased operations in January 2026.