Bitcoin Magazine
U.S. Treasury Cuts Off MEXC From U.S. Financial System Over Alleged $16 Billion in Illicit Flows
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final order Friday that will cut offshore exchange MEXC Global off from the American banking system over alleged links to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea and Russia, the department said.
FinCEN’s order, published as a PDF pending Federal Register placement, finds MEXC a “primary money laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance” under section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. Thirty days after that Register notice, covered U.S. financial institutions will be barred from any funds transfer — including convertible virtual currency — to or from MEXC.
Reuters reported the same cut-off Friday afternoon. Treasury framed the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast. It is not an OFAC sanctions designation: the order says it does not rewrite Bank Secrecy Act duties or OFAC rules, and it is a FinCEN funds-transmittal ban rather than a Section 311 proposed rulemaking.
Treasury alleges MEXC facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit flows from May 2021 through May 2026, including nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion and about $22 million linked to Iran’s Central Bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force. The platform was still processing trades with sanctioned Garantex and successor Grinex as recently as June 2026, more than four years after OFAC designated Garantex, the release says.
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