CoinEx Responds to Wall Street Journal Report: Has Never Cooperated with Iran, Prioritizes Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering, and Sanctions Risk Management

Odaily Odaily reports that CoinEx has issued a statement regarding a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, which mentioned transactions involving Alireza Derakhshan and Zedcex/Zanjani. According to currently available information, all related transactions occurred before the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on the aforementioned entities. CoinEx does not provide services to any sanctioned entities or individuals and has never, in any way, facilitated any such entity after becoming aware of their sanctioned status. CoinEx has never established any commercial cooperation with entities affiliated with the Iranian government or Iranian local exchanges, nor has it ever provided a funding channel or any form of active assistance to Iranian government agencies, entities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or other sanctioned parties.

CoinEx was blacklisted by the Iranian government as early as 2021, and its official domain is blocked within Iran. This fact alone indicates that CoinEx is not a platform officially recognized, supported, or cooperated with by Iran, nor does it possess the practical basis to serve as an official Iranian funding channel. CoinEx has never established any office or operational entity in Iran. While some individuals may have spontaneously promoted CoinEx through this system, this is not an organized action by CoinEx. CoinEx firmly opposes the narrative that conflates ordinary user behavior with state-level sanctions evasion operations, as well as the inference that on-chain fund flows are directly equivalent to the platform’s knowledge, support, or participation in illegal activities.

Regarding the Bybit hack mentioned in the report, CoinEx assisted Bybit with account interception and asset freezing immediately after the incident occurred. Additionally, CoinEx will conduct an internal review of the related transactions mentioned in the report.

Following sanctions imposed on Iranian local exchanges such as Nobitex, CoinEx immediately initiated a comprehensive review and exit procedure for its exposure to Iran-related risks, implementing the following measures:

CoinEx refuses to accept user registrations from the Iranian region, has strengthened the identification of Iranian users, and continues to conduct compliance-driven account terminations for identified Iranian user accounts;

CoinEx has implemented comprehensive geo-fencing and access restriction measures for the Iranian region, and accounts and assets of identified sanctioned entities or individuals will be restricted or frozen;

CoinEx has strengthened its Know Your Transaction (KYT) system to enhance monitoring and review capabilities for transactions involving sanctioned regions, high-risk addresses, and abnormal on-chain paths, and will freeze related transactions;

CoinEx continues to identify and take action against accounts that misuse the platform for illegal activities, particularly those using CoinEx as a fund transfer intermediary.

CoinEx takes compliance, anti-money laundering, and sanctions risks in the digital asset industry very seriously and believes it has a responsibility to provide a clear and objective response to its users and partners.