A sweeping international investigation by Reuters published today (Monday), based on newly disclosed data from analytics firm Arkham, has triggered an unprecedented political and business firestorm around the Trump administration. The data proves that “Nobitex”, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, used the Tron and BNB Chain blockchain networks to evade Western sanctions and move billions of dollars for Iran’s central bank and the Revolutionary Guards.
The public drama stems from the fact that the founders of these networks are the largest financial backers of Donald Trump’s family crypto company—placing the White House in a sharp conflict of interest amid the confrontation it’s waging.
The current exposure comes at a politically sensitive moment, as the White House’s behind-the-scenes business alliances land in court. The relationship between Tron founder Justin Sun and the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, recently erupted into open legal warfare after Sun sued the company alleging pressure to invest in its tokens, while the company filed a countersuit accusing him of defamation.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded: “Reuters’ bizarre attempts to link President Trump to Iran’s banking system are completely ridiculous.” A World Liberty Financial spokesperson also said: “The company has no connection or familiarity with the Iranian Nobitex exchange. The company operates in accordance with U.S. law, does not manage, operate, or control the Tron network in any way, and has no authority over transactions conducted within it.”
BNB Chain spokesperson Anna Niquara said “BNB Chain is a public, decentralized blockchain managed by an independent global community of validators. It is not an exchange, not a company, and is not connected to Binance.”
Despite BNB Chain’s official distancing from Binance, official corporate documents in Abu Dhabi reviewed by Reuters show that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao remains the sole registered shareholder of the company holding the network’s intellectual property rights. Meanwhile, the Iranian company Nobitex responded by rejecting claims of direct government ties or assistance with money laundering, noting that if prohibited funds passed through, it was done without management approval or knowledge.
Nobitex, controlled by two brothers from a powerful Iranian family close to the Supreme Leader, has become a central hub of a parallel financial system evading Western embargo. Between 2018 and 2022, roughly $7.8 billion moved between Nobitex and Binance, most of it using Tron network’s currency, with Nobitex encouraging its customers to use this network to trade anonymously without risking assets due to sanctions.
Recently there’s been a dramatic escalation as analytics firm reports revealed Iran’s central bank purchased stablecoins worth over $500 million through the Tron network, transferring hundreds of millions directly to Nobitex while using decentralized networks including BNB Chain to obscure traces. Since the official war with Iran broke out in February, the pace of transfers hasn’t stopped—tens of millions more in Iranian dollars have flowed through the same channels.
These events intersected directly with Trump’s return to the White House and the launch of his family crypto venture. When that venture struggled to attract investors, Justin Sun purchased WLFI tokens worth tens of millions of dollars and gave them momentum. Later, an Abu Dhabi investment fund bought a stake in Binance and pushed to execute the deal using the Trump family’s stablecoin—generating enormous profits for the president’s family. The peak came when Trump granted a presidential pardon to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, erasing his criminal conviction for money laundering, while Binance holds billions of dollars in his family’s assets.