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An unlicensed Dubai exchange called Shelbit moved at least $4 billion since May 2024 for Iran's central bank, wallets Israel has tied to the IRGC, and more than 2,000 Farsi-language gambling sites, according to a Reuters investigation published Friday. Blockchain researchers traced at least $676 million of that to Binance wallets.

Roughly $540 million of that landed after Dubai's regulator fined Shelbit last year for operating without a license. Binance disputes the figure, says Shelbit never held an account, and says it froze linked accounts and alerted law enforcement.

Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 to sanctions and money-laundering violations and paid $4.3 billion, with U.S. officials citing about $900 million in trades between American and Iranian users. Researcher Rich Sanders, who worked on the blockchain analysis, said he warned Binance about Shelbit's Iran ties in October 2025. Binance told The Block it has no evidence for that.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned two Iranian firms on July 29 over a scheme that charged commercial ships for "insurance" to cross the Strait of Hormuz and took payment in bitcoin. Hormuz Safe, built by Iran's Ministry of Economy, accepted bitcoin and other digital assets to sidestep Western sanctions, Treasury said. The Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company brokered the policies.

Treasury called it extortion rather than insurance, noting the covered risks, such as vessel seizures, are mostly created by Iran itself. Proceeds allegedly went to the IRGC.

The regime "is desperate for cash," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, pointing to triple-digit inflation and an economy in freefall.

New York sued Kalshi on Friday over what Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul call an unlicensed gambling operation, and the state put a number on it: at least $36 billion. The petition, filed in Manhattan state court, seeks a ban on Kalshi's contracts in New York, restitution to users, forfeiture of profits, triple damages and $100,000 for every unauthorized wager offered.

Before the filing, the CFTC asked a federal judge to block New York from enforcing its gambling laws against the exchange.

Kalshi in a statement to several media outlets called the suit political theater and said states cannot shut down a federally licensed exchange. The company targeted a $40 billion valuation in a June funding round, which makes New York's damages claim roughly the size of the company.

Tether reported about $1.5 billion in net operating profit for the second quarter, driven by its U.S. Treasury and repo holdings. The cushion behind USDT got thinner: reserves exceeded liabilities by $4.11 billion as of June 30, down from just over $8.23 billion three months earlier.

The company held $187.75 billion in assets against $183.64 billion in liabilities, according to the BDO attestation released Friday. USDT in circulation rose about $446 million to $184.6 billion, lifting its share of a shrinking stablecoin market above 60%.

Tether added 14 metric tons of gold, taking holdings to roughly 146.2 tons, and bought about 1,796 bitcoin to reach 98,933 BTC. Both stashes lost dollar value anyway, since gold fell about 15% and the bitcoin price used in the report dropped to $58,600 from $68,200. Secured lending exposure came down by $2.38 billion.

DON’T MISS BITS + BIPS TODAY

The biggest AI fund of the cycle imploded: Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness fell from ~$45B to ~$10B, got margin-called on 4x leverage, and handed its entire book to Ken Griffin's Citadel.

Austin, Ram, and Chris debate whether Citadel engineered the squeeze — and whether it marked the AI-trade bottom. Plus a hawkish Fed, the Coldcard exploit, stablecoin bank charters, and New York vs Kalshi.

Join the Bits + Bips stream on X, or YouTube.

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo argues much of crypto's tokenized-stock boom is unauthorized offshore paper, and that transfer agents, not outside platforms, should control what gets tokenized.

He details a Netflix stock split that left an unauthorized derivative trading five times off, and the SEC rule now up for repeal that locks onchain and offchain share prices together. Securitize's own NYSE-backed venue targets a Q4 launch.

Join Unchained stream on X, YouTube or PumpFun.