A modest office above a budget hotel in Dubai's Deira neighborhood served as the operations hub for a vast illicit crypto network. Known as Shelbit, the unlicensed exchange was run by Siavash Kayvanpour, an Iranian expatriate, and handled at least $4 billion in cryptocurrency starting from May 2024.
Investigators uncovered how this crypto flow connected to over 2,000 illegal gambling websites mainly targeting Iranian users, a country where gambling is banned. These sites funneled payments through Iran's central bank systems, then converted funds into crypto via Shelbit, bypassing sanctions.
Blockchain tracing revealed around $676 million of Shelbit transactions moving onto Binance, the globe’s largest crypto exchange by volume. However, this amount represents only part of the total volume that Shelbit processed. Connections extended further to Iran’s central bank and wallets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Regulatory Crackdown and Social Media Backlash
Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) stepped in on July 24, 2026, issuing a cease-and-desist order against Shelbit a week before Reuters exposed the operation. The regulator cited concerns over money laundering and illegal operation without a license. Kayvanpour and others tied to the scheme were already convicted of illegal gambling in 2023.
Social media influencers like Sasha Sobhani and Pooyan Mokhtari, operating outside Iran, helped promote these gambling platforms to the Iranian market and have faced legal action as a result.
