US Sanctions Eight Canadian Crypto Firms Over Iran Links and Drug Money for Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding

Published November 7, 2026, 7:20 PM PKT. Based on the US Department of the Treasury press release of November 6, 2026 (primary source), with secondary reporting from Blockonomi and The Edge on November 6 and 7, 2026.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight Canada-based money services businesses on November 6, 2026, saying they moved money for the Iranian regime by swapping Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets. The designations, imposed under Executive Order 13902 as part of Operation Economic Outcast, name firms operating in Ontario and British Columbia that Treasury says transacted with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges and with digital asset addresses linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Several of the same firms also laundered drug proceeds for Ryan Wedding, a sanctioned Canadian trafficker and former Olympic snowboarder, who used couriers to deliver bulk cash to exchange shops in Vancouver and Toronto that converted it into digital assets to send abroad. The action blocks any US property of the eight firms and bars US persons from dealing with them.

The eight firms and what Treasury says they did

The eight businesses are Diverse Trade Inc, doing business as Million Exchange; 1380079 BC Limited, doing business as Amin Exchange; Top PC Technician Inc, an affiliate of 1380079 BC Limited that also trades as Amin Exchange in Ontario; NIA Nations Currency Ltd, or NIA Nations; 2397639 Ontario Ltd, doing business as Farah Exchange; CCC Inc; B Galaxy Inc, doing business as Cryptoyal; and Darvish Exchange. Treasury says the firms let sanctioned Iranian entities use their services, giving the regime financial lifelines to keep funding terrorism and proxy groups, and that many of them also received and laundered funds from other criminal activity. Canada is home to hundreds of money services businesses that move funds into and out of Iran, both through cash-based value transfer systems and by converting cash into digital assets to send across borders, according to the Treasury release. Several of the designated firms changed their business names and addresses to evade detection and enforcement, and they remained operational even after Canadian and international media highlighted the risks they posed.

The firm-by-firm findings are specific. Million Exchange, an Ontario business, advertises the ability to exchange Iranian rials for other currencies and to manage digital assets for customers, and digital asset addresses linked to it sent the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars to addresses associated with the IRGC or other terrorism-related addresses, according to Treasury. Amin Exchange, operating in British Columbia and Ontario, facilitates currency transfers between Iran and Canada and buys and sells digital assets, and addresses linked to it received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Shelbit, a sanctioned Iranian exchange. NIA Nations, based in British Columbia, advertises digital asset exchange services and transfers of money from Iran to Canada, and addresses linked to it transacted with IRGC-linked addresses and with the sanctioned Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Ramzinex and Bitpin. Farah Exchange advertises itself as an Iranian exchange operating in Canada, and an address linked to it conducted hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of transactions with Shelbit and Wallex. CCC Inc and B Galaxy Inc operate from the same Ontario location, and a CCC Inc website offers buying and selling of digital currencies and says it is licensed in Iran and Canada, while B Galaxy, trading as Cryptoyal, advertises unlimited amounts of digital assets in exchange for Iranian currencies. Darvish Exchange, based in Ontario, advertises the ability to exchange Bitcoin ($BTC) for Iranian rials, and an address linked to it transacted with Nobitex, Wallex, Aban Tether Exchange and Shelbit.

The Ryan Wedding drug-money channel

The drug-trafficking strand is what sets this action apart from a routine sanctions listing. Treasury says Wedding used money exchange businesses in the Vancouver and Toronto areas to launder billions of dollars in drug proceeds, using couriers to transport bulk cash to the firms, which converted the funds into digital assets to send abroad. Wedding was apprehended in January 2026, but before being taken into US custody he worked with several of the money services businesses designated on November 6 to transfer millions of dollars' worth of digital assets, according to the release. Million Exchange laundered drug proceeds by using cash from drug sales to buy digital assets to send back to drug dealers, and Wedding used that method and also directed the firm to send certain digital assets abroad that it had bought with drug-related cash. Amin Exchange laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds in Canada at locations in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and its Vancouver shop laundered drug proceeds for Wedding by taking the cash in and transferring it into digital assets that Wedding directed abroad. Farah Exchange sent millions of dollars in digital assets to addresses associated with Wedding, and thousands of dollars in digital assets to addresses associated with terrorism.

The action was coordinated with the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit, and with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Treasury described it as part of the Trump administration's whole-of-government effort to combat the illicit use of digital assets for drug trafficking. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies," and added, "Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime's financial channels anywhere in the world."

The Iranian exchange network behind the designations

The designations build on two earlier rounds of OFAC action against the Iranian digital asset ecosystem. On June 2, 2026, OFAC designated the Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex, and on August 7, 2026, it designated Aban Tether Exchange and SHPS Shelbit, which operates the Shelbit Exchange that Treasury says moved millions of dollars on behalf of the IRGC. The November 6 action targets the intermediaries that sit between those exchanges and the outside world, the Canadian shops that turned rials into crypto and crypto into rials. Operation Economic Outcast itself was launched in August 2026 to sever the economic lifelines sustaining the Iranian regime and its IRGC, including what Treasury calls Tehran's exploitation of cryptocurrency as a tool of choice for sanctions evasion, and the campaign has since moved through shipping, maritime fraud, military procurement and shadow banking networks as well as digital asset exchanges.

What the sanctions actually block

The designations put the eight firms on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals list. As a result, all property and interests in property of the designated firms that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC, and any entity owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons is blocked as well. Unless OFAC authorizes a transaction by general or specific license, US sanctions rules generally prohibit all transactions by US persons, or within or transiting the United States, involving the property of a designated person. Violations can bring civil penalties, which OFAC can impose on a strict liability basis, and criminal penalties, and foreign persons can also face penalties for causing US persons to violate sanctions or for conduct that evades them. The designations are not a shutdown order for the firms in Canada, and Treasury's release does not say Canadian authorities have closed any of them, so the immediate effect is on their access to the US financial system and to US counterparties.

The same-day MEXC order and the wider campaign

The Canadian designations landed on the same day as the other half of Treasury's November 6 crypto enforcement push. FinCEN issued an order that will cut crypto exchange MEXC Global off from the US financial system, saying the exchange facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions between May 2021 and May 2026, including about $1.5 billion linked to Russian sanctions evasion and about $1 billion with more than 40 Iranian crypto exchangers. That order takes effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register, a step that had still not happened on the morning of November 7, and MEXC has said it is operating normally while its legal and compliance teams review the order. Together, the two November 6 actions show Treasury attacking the same problem from both ends: the offshore exchange accused of moving the money, and the storefront intermediaries accused of converting it.

What to watch next

Three things will show how far this action reaches. The first is whether Canadian authorities act against the eight firms, since Treasury's release says they remain operational and the designations by themselves do not close them. The second is the Federal Register publication of the MEXC order, which starts the 30-day clock on that separate cutoff. The third is the Ryan Wedding prosecution, which may disclose how much of the millions in digital assets moved through the designated firms has been traced or seized, and whether more intermediaries surface in the same investigation. Treasury says it will keep targeting not only the Iranian digital asset ecosystem but also international entities and actors that help facilitate it, and the campaign's next actions are likely to follow the same pattern of naming the middlemen rather than only the exchanges.

Sources

• US Department of the Treasury, Operation Economic Outcast Sanctions Eight Canadian Money Services Businesses Enabling Iranian Regime, November 6, 2026 (primary source: OFAC designated eight Canada-based money services businesses under Executive Order 13902 as part of Operation Economic Outcast; firms facilitate exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets; transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges and IRGC-associated addresses; Bessent quote; coordinated with FinCEN, FINTRAC and the Drug Enforcement Administration; Ryan Wedding used Vancouver and Toronto area money exchange businesses to launder billions of dollars in drug proceeds, couriers delivered bulk cash converted to digital assets to send abroad, apprehended January 2026, transferred millions of dollars' worth of digital assets through several designated firms before US custody; firm-by-firm findings for Million Exchange, Amin Exchange, NIA Nations, Farah Exchange, CCC Inc, B Galaxy Inc and Darvish Exchange; June 2, 2026 designations of Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex and August 7, 2026 designations of Aban Tether Exchange and Shelbit; sanctions implications including blocked property and strict liability civil penalties)
• Blockonomi, US Sanctions 8 Canadian Crypto Firms Over Iran Links as MEXC Faces $16B Crackdown, November 7, 2026 (secondary reporting: eight businesses designated under Executive Order 13902, firms in Ontario and British Columbia, converted Iranian rials into digital assets, transacted with Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, Ramzinex and Shelbit, addresses linked to the IRGC, Wedding used cash couriers to deliver drug proceeds converted into digital assets before transfer abroad, coordinated with FinCEN and FINTRAC with Drug Enforcement Administration participation, FinCEN MEXC order over at least $16 billion in illicit transactions)
• The Edge Consultancy, US Treasury Orders Ban on MEXC Global Transfers, Sanctions 8 Canadian Firms, November 6, 2026 (secondary reporting: eight Canadian businesses designated under Executive Order 13902, six in Ontario and two in British Columbia, two also giving a Montreal address, firms named with aliases, coordinated with FinCEN and FINTRAC, follows June 2, 2026 designations of Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex and August 7 designations of Aban Tether Exchange and Shelbit, MEXC order under section 9714(a) with at least $16.7 billion in likely illicit activity)

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.