US Treasury Cuts MEXC Off From the US Financial System

The US Treasury on Nov. 6 announced that it is severing crypto exchange MEXC Global from the US financial system. US financial institutions are barred from processing fund transfers involving the exchange. The order takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The release came out around 3:00 PM ET.

Details

The department cites Section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act and presents the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast, its campaign against Iran's financial connections. Violations carry civil or criminal penalties.

Figures from the Treasury release (covering May 2021 to May 2026):

• at least $16 billion in illicit transactions through the exchange;
• about $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion, including $232 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities;
• about $200 million linked to the A7A5 stablecoin and about $26 million to the A7 sanctions-evasion network;
• about $1 billion with Iranian exchangers and about $22 million for Iran's central bank and the IRGC Qods Force.

Treasury also says funds linked to North Korean sanctions evasion, ransomware payments, scams and darknet markets passed through MEXC. These are the department's figures; the release does not include a response from the exchange, and we found no MEXC statement at the time of writing.

What it means for the market

The order cuts the exchange's access to US banks and payment rails; it does not touch the tokens themselves. On Oct. 20 MEXC had already said it would stop serving users in Russia and Belarus. How the new order affects trading and withdrawals depends on how the exchange reroutes settlement, and there is no official comment yet.

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