LONDON – The sons of a powerful family with close ties to Iran’s new supreme leader control the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, transforming it from a startup into a conduit to the global economy used by both blacklisted state institutions and ordinary citizens.
Since Nobitex was founded by the two brothers under an alternative family name, it has processed between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions linked to sanctioned groups including Iran’s central bank and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a Reuters investigation has found.
The two are members of the Kharrazi family, one of the most influential dynasties in the Islamic Republic. Corporate records show that when the exchange started, the brothers were listed under a surname rarely used by members of the family.
The company rapidly became embedded in Iran’s economy. Nobitex claims 11 million users, more than 10% of Iran’s population. Locked out of international banking and facing a devalued rial and rampant inflation, ordinary Iranians use the exchange to buy and hold cryptocurrency.
