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U.S. Treasury Cuts Off MEXC From U.S. Financial System Over Alleged $16 Billion in Illicit Flows
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final order Friday that will cut offshore exchange MEXC Global off from the American banking system over alleged links to sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea and Russia, the department said.
FinCEN’s order, published as a PDF pending Federal Register placement, finds MEXC a “primary money laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance” under section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. Thirty days after that Register notice, covered U.S. financial institutions will be barred from any funds transfer — including convertible virtual currency — to or from MEXC.
Reutersreported the same cut-off Friday afternoon. Treasury framed the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast. It is not an OFAC sanctions designation: the order says it does not rewrite Bank Secrecy Act duties or OFAC rules, and it is a FinCEN funds-transmittal ban rather than a Section 311 proposed rulemaking.
Treasury alleges MEXC facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit flows from May 2021 through May 2026, including nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion and about $22 million linked to Iran’s Central Bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force. The platform was still processing trades with sanctioned Garantex and successor Grinex as recently as June 2026, more than four years after OFAC designated Garantex, the release says.
What the order does — and when
The order, signed by FinCEN Deputy Director Jimmy L. Kirby, covers MEXC Global and named affiliates operating outside the United States, including Seychelles-incorporated MEXC Global Ltd / MX Global Ltd, Estonia’s MEXC Estonia OÜ, Switzerland’s GIDA Technology AG and the U.K.’s MXC Global Ltd, plus successors. Covered institutions face civil or criminal penalties for willful violations.
Until the Federal Register publishes the notice, the 30-day clock has not started. As of Friday evening eastern time the Register’s public index still showed no MEXC document, matching the order’s own cover note that publication is pending.
Background on MEXC
Founded in 2018 and formerly branded MXC, MEXC ranks among the world’s 20 largest centralized crypto venues by volume. Treasury puts daily turnover above $1 billion and reserves near $5 billion as of mid-2026, with access claimed across more than 170 countries. The exchange already lists the United States as a prohibited jurisdiction in its user terms, so Friday’s action mainly hits any remaining dollar rails, banking partners and counterparties that still touch U.S. institutions.
Regulators elsewhere have been circling for years. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority put MEXC Global Ltd on its warning list in March 2024 as unauthorized. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission warned the same month that the platform was marketing to local investors without a licence. Seychelles’ Financial Services Authority said in May 2026 it took action against MX Global Ltd for unlicensed virtual-asset operations — footnoted in FinCEN’s order.
Those compliance gaps matter because the illicit-flow thesis is specific, not guilt by association. Beyond Russia, FinCEN cites about $1 billion in direct traffic with more than 40 Iranian crypto exchangers, nearly $26 million with the OFAC-sanctioned A7 sanctions-evasion network, and almost $200 million tied to the A7A5 stablecoin. DPRK facilitators and cybercrime flows are also alleged. MEXC has not issued a public response to the Friday order; its main X account kept posting marketing content through the afternoon.
Why it matters for bitcoin markets
Practically, once the order bites, U.S. banks, money transmitters and other covered firms cannot move dollars or crypto to MEXC wallets or accounts. Offshore users may keep trading peer-to-peer, but dollar on-ramps and any bank that still clears for MEXC become legal risk. The template tracks earlier 9714 cut-offs of venues such as Bitzlato, and it lands beside a busy sanctions week that has already seen North Korea crypto designations, an Iranian exchange action, and Russia’s push to put bitcoin trading on the Moscow Exchange.
Whether MEXC contests the finding, seeks an exemption, or quietly reroutes liquidity is the open question. For now the paper trail is clear: a final FinCEN order under 9714(a), a 30-day fuse after Federal Register publication, and Treasury’s claim of at least $16 billion in illicit volume sitting behind the cut-off.
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