According to reports, Shelbit has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, while connecting gambling operations and sanctioned Iranian entities to the global crypto landscape.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Jamie Crawley Jul 31, 2026, 12:28 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a significant military and political institution in Iran. (Fars Media Corporation/Wikimedia Commons)SummaryShow- A significant illegal gambling network in Dubai is reportedly funnelling millions in cryptocurrency through Shelbit, an unlicensed exchange at the heart of a $4 billion scheme to evade Iranian sanctions, according to Reuters.
- Operated by Iranian expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, Shelbit has allegedly transferred hundreds of millions to major crypto platforms, facilitating access to global markets for Iran’s central bank and other sanctioned entities.
- U.S. officials and independent investigators suggest the operation is closely linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, although direct control by the IRGC over Shelbit or the gambling network remains unconfirmed, according to Reuters.
A massive illegal gambling operation based in Dubai is reportedly channeling substantial amounts of cryptocurrency through Shelbit, an unlicensed exchange implicated in a $4 billion scheme to bypass Iranian sanctions, as reported by Reuters on Friday.
Claimed to be one of the largest of its kind globally, this gambling network comprises over 2,000 platforms and is a key client of Shelbit, which is managed by Iranian exile Siavash Kayvanpour.
Shelbit serves as the central hub for this Iranian financial operation, granting the gambling network, Iran's central bank, and other sanctioned entities access to international cryptocurrency markets, the report indicates. The Central Bank of Iran has faced sanctions under U.S. counterterrorism laws since 2019 due to its support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Quds Force, and Hezbollah.
Shelbit has reportedly transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to leading cryptocurrency firms, including Binance, the largest exchange in the world.
In response, Binance stated that Shelbit has never maintained an account on its platform and that transactions associated with Shelbit are not regarded as high risk. The exchange added that it has conducted investigations on users linked to Shelbit, frozen relevant accounts, and notified law enforcement.
“This is by far the largest Iranian illegal gambling network ever uncovered and one of the most significant globally,” remarked John Wojcik, a former researcher at Infoblox and now a senior analyst at TRM Labs, who has spent seven years examining illegal gambling for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
This network is also among the largest Iranian sanctions-evasion operations identified since 2016, when U.S. authorities dismantled a $20 billion IRGC gold-for-oil scheme based in Turkey. Additionally, the U.S. seized $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iran in May.
“This is clearly an IRGC operation,” stated Rich Sanders, an independent blockchain investigator focusing on Iran, while Reuters noted it could not ascertain whether the IRGC directly governs Shelbit or the gambling network.
The IRGC, established in 1979, stands as Iran's most powerful military, political, and economic body, directly accountable to the supreme leader, Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei.
Shelbit also reportedly engages directly with Iran’s central bank, wallets identified with the IRGC by the Israeli government, and Nobitex, an Iranian exchange that was sanctioned by the U.S. government earlier this year following a Reuters investigation into its government connections. Some of the cryptocurrency flowing to Shelbit is said to originate from an Iranian bitcoin mining operation responsible for generating new digital coins.
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