Two cryptocurrency billionaires are involved in both the Trump family token and the sanctions-evasion mechanism for Iran.

      Reuters has traced flows of $2.3 billion from the Iranian exchange Nobitex since 2023 to the Tron and BNB Chain blockchains, which were established by prominent early supporters of World Liberty Financial (WLF). No individuals affiliated with WLF have been implicated in this matter.

      A Reuters investigation released on Monday reveals that Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has processed a minimum of $2.3 billion on the Tron and BNB Chain blockchains since the beginning of 2023. Tron was co-founded by Justin Sun, while the BNB Chain was created by Binance, owned by Changpeng Zhao. Both Sun and Zhao are notable early supporters of World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded by Donald Trump and his family. There is no indication that the Trump family was aware of Nobitex's operations on these networks.

      Analyzing public blockchain data from Arkham, Reuters reports that roughly $2 billion of Nobitex's transactions occurred on Tron, while $317 million was conducted on BNB Chain since January 1, 2023. From February, after the conflict in Iran began, $22.6 million was transacted via BNB Chain and $550,000 through Tron. Four cryptocurrency analysts confirmed the accuracy of this estimate; independent investigator Rich Sanders suggested the actual amount could be higher, as public records only show known Nobitex addresses, and the exchange has acknowledged changing addresses to elude detection.

      The reactions of the involved parties to the report are on record. The White House, represented by spokeswoman Anna Kelly, dismissed the article as "bizarre attempts to link President Trump to Iran’s banking system," labeling it "totally laughable." A spokesperson for World Liberty declared that the company "has no relationship with Nobitex and adheres to U.S. law," emphasizing that "World Liberty does not own, operate, or control Tron in any capacity and has no authority over transactions on it." Nobitex stated that any illegal funds that passed through the exchange did so "without management approval or awareness."

      A representative from Tron noted that the network is "a technology provider" and cannot "monitor and investigate every user and every transaction." Binance emphasized its role as "an initial contributor and incubator" of BNB Chain rather than its operator.

      A caveat regarding Binance's corporate structure is also pertinent. Documents from Abu Dhabi, reviewed by Reuters, list Zhao as the sole shareholder of BNB Chain Technology Holding Limited, which took over the operations of BNB Chain in 2023.

      Previously, Reuters' 2022 report identified approximately $7.8 billion in cryptocurrency transactions between Nobitex and Binance from 2018 to 2022, with about three-quarters conducted in Tron’s native asset. Nobitex reportedly promoted the use of Tron for trading to "avoid jeopardizing assets due to sanctions."

      The Trump family's business interest in WLF underlies the reporting. Sun's holdings of 4 billion WLFI tokens are valued at approximately $266 million, based on Reuters' calculations, while Binance currently possesses $3.8 billion worth of the Trump-family token.

      In early 2025, Abu Dhabi's MGX purchased a $2 billion stake in Binance, with plans to finalize the transaction using WLF’s USD1 stablecoin. Additionally, Trump’s pardon of Zhao in October 2025, which cleared his federal conviction linked to anti-money-laundering failures, aligns with this commercial timeline. Lawyers for both Binance and Zhao have denied any connection between the USD1 arrangement and the pardon.

      The broader context of money laundering has also been well-documented. Tether frozen several Nobitex wallet addresses at the request of Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. In January, Elliptic and two Iran specialists revealed that the Central Bank of Iran, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2019 for alleged financing of the IRGC and Hezbollah, purchased over $500 million in Tether via Tron between November 2024 and June 2025, with around $347 million funneled to Nobitex in the first half of 2025. The central bank also exchanged its holdings into other cryptocurrencies and transferred them across BNB Chain to obscure tracking.

      However, the United States has not imposed sanctions on Nobitex itself, and Reuters could not ascertain the reasons for this. The watchdog organization Public Citizen has labeled the WLF/Binance/Iran connection a "conflict coin" and urged investigations by the Treasury and DOJ. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed have both called for formal inquiries into WLF’s sanctions compliance, which the company asserts meets "the highest standard in the industry."

      The key individuals had already experienced a falling out prior to the Reuters report. Sun filed a lawsuit against World Liberty in April over allegedly frozen assets, while WLF retaliated with a countersuit in early May, alleging defamation.

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