CoinEx Responds to Wall Street Journal Report: No Cooperation with Iran, Highly Prioritizes Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering, and Sanctions Risks

The Odaily Planet Daily reports that CoinEx has released a statement addressing the recent Wall Street Journal report regarding transactions involving Alireza Derakhshan and Zedcex/Zanjani. Based on currently available information, all related transactions occurred before the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the aforementioned entities. CoinEx does not provide services to any sanctioned entities or individuals and has never knowingly facilitated such entities in any way after they were sanctioned. CoinEx has never established any commercial partnership with entities related to the Iranian government or Iranian local exchanges, nor has it ever provided funding channels or any form of active assistance to Iranian government agencies, entities associated with the Revolutionary Guard, or other sanctioned parties.

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

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

Following sanctions against Iranian local exchanges such as Nobitex, CoinEx immediately initiated a comprehensive review and exit process for Iran-related risk exposure, taking the following measures:

Refusing new user registrations from the Iran region, strengthening identification of Iranian users, and continuously carrying out compliant offboarding for identified Iranian user accounts;

Implementing comprehensive geo-fencing and access restriction measures for the Iran region, with accounts and assets of identified sanctioned entities or individuals being restricted or frozen;

Strengthening the KYT system to enhance the ability to monitor and review transactions involving sanctioned regions, high-risk addresses, and abnormal on-chain pathways, and freezing related transactions;

Continuously identifying and taking action against accounts that abuse the platform for illegal activities, particularly those using CoinEx as a fund transit point.

CoinEx places great emphasis on compliance, anti-money laundering, and sanctions risks within the digital asset industry, and believes it has a responsibility to provide clear and objective responses to its users and partners.