Two cryptocurrency billionaires are behind both the Trump family token and Iran's mechanism for evading sanctions.

      Reuters has traced $2.3 billion in transactions from the Iranian exchange Nobitex since 2023 on the Tron and BNB Chain blockchains, which were established by the early supporters of World Liberty Financial (WLF). No representatives of WLF have been accused of any wrongdoing.

      A Reuters investigation released on Monday indicates that Nobitex, the largest crypto exchange in Iran, has handled a minimum of $2.3 billion since the start of 2023 on the Tron and BNB Chain blockchains. Tron was created by Justin Sun, while BNB Chain was developed by Binance, which is owned by Changpeng Zhao. Both Sun and Zhao are significant early investors in WLF, the crypto firm co-founded by Donald Trump and his family. There is no implication that the Trump family was aware of Nobitex's use of these networks.

      The analysis of public blockchain data, obtained from Arkham by Reuters, reveals that around $2 billion of Nobitex's transactions occurred on Tron, with $317 million on BNB Chain since January 1, 2023. Notably, $22.6 million on BNB Chain and $550,000 through Tron were processed following the onset of the Iran war in February. Four crypto analysts deemed the calculations accurate, while independent investigator Rich Sanders suggested that the true amount might be higher since public flows are only visible for recognized Nobitex addresses, and the exchange has acknowledged changing addresses to evade detection.

      Reactions from the involved parties are on record. The White House, via spokesperson Anna Kelly, dismissed the article as "bizarre attempts to connect President Trump to Iran’s banking system," labeling it "totally laughable." A spokesperson for World Liberty stated that the company "has no relationship with Nobitex and adheres to U.S. law," adding that "World Liberty does not own, operate, or control Tron in any capacity," nor does it hold authority over transactions on the network. Nobitex claimed that any illicit funds that passed through its platform did so "without management approval or awareness."

      A spokesperson for Tron emphasized that the network "is a technology provider" unable to "monitor and investigate every user and every transaction." Binance clarified that it was merely "an initial contributor and incubator" of BNB Chain, and not its operator.

      Binance's corporate structure is more complex than it may appear. Documents from Abu Dhabi reviewed by Reuters list Zhao as the sole shareholder of BNB Chain Technology Holding Limited, the entity managing BNB Chain operations since their transition in 2023. Prior reporting by Reuters in 2022 indicated that roughly $7.8 billion in cryptocurrency moved between Nobitex and Binance from 2018 to 2022, with about 75% in Tron’s native asset. Nobitex actively promoted Tron usage to its clients to facilitate trades "without risking assets due to sanctions."

      The Trump family's commercial involvement in WLF is a foundational aspect of the reporting. According to Reuters' estimates, Sun’s holdings of 4 billion WLFI tokens are valued at approximately $266 million, while Binance currently possesses $3.8 billion in the Trump family's token.

      In early 2025, Abu Dhabi’s MGX acquired a $2 billion stake in Binance, with the deal to be settled in WLF’s USD1 stablecoin. Notably, Trump's pardon of Zhao in October 2025, which rescinded his federal conviction for failing to implement effective anti-money-laundering measures, coincides with this commercial timeline. Both Binance and Zhao's attorneys have maintained that there is no link between the USD1 transaction and the pardon.

      The narrower issue of money laundering has been well established. Tether froze several Nobitex wallet addresses at the request of Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. A report by Elliptic and Iran specialists in January revealed that the Central Bank of Iran, sanctioned by the US in 2019 for alleged financing of the IRGC and Hezbollah, purchased over $500 million in tether through Tron from November 2024 to June 2025, with nearly $347 million directed to Nobitex in the first half of 2025. The central bank also converted its holdings into other cryptocurrencies and transferred them across BNB Chain to obscure their origin.

      The United States has not sanctioned Nobitex itself, and Reuters could not ascertain a reason for this. The public interest group Public Citizen has classified the WLF/Binance/Iran connection as a "conflict coin" and has called for investigations by the Treasury and DOJ. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed have also sought formal inquiries into WLF's sanctions compliance, which the company claims meets the highest industry standards.

      Relations among the key figures had already soured before the Reuters investigation began. Sun filed a lawsuit against World Liberty in April over allegedly frozen assets, and WLF countersued in early May for defamation.

      The blockchain data, as framed by the