BESSENT SAYS CRYPTO IS ONE OF FIVE NEW POWERS AGAINST IRAN — TREASURY SAYS BITBANK MOVED “HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS” IN BITCOIN — IT PUBLISHED ZERO ADDRESSES

On September 17, Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned BitBank, an Iranian exchange it says is controlled by designated financier Babak Zanjani, along with its developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, and three people. Treasury says BitBank moved hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June and July. On CNBC’s Squawk Box on September 21, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Treasury got “five new authorities” against Iran about a month ago, “including on aviation, maritime, crypto, gold.”

Now check what can be checked. Bitcoin moves on a public ledger. OFAC has attached bitcoin addresses to sanctions listings before, so anyone could trace the coins. The SDN entries added September 17 carry Tehran locations and websites. Not one bitcoin address.

That leaves “hundreds of millions” as a number you have to take on trust, about the one asset built so you would not have to. There may be a reason to hold the addresses back. Publish them and the chain does the rest. Purity is not a security model; a receipt is. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $85,985.