Today in Crypto: The US Treasury has sanctioned two UK-registered crypto exchanges tied to Iran’s financial system, Bitcoin’s sharp reversal this week has knocked it out of the world’s top 10 assets by market capitalization. Meanwhile, Binance said it will convert its $1 billion user protection fund into Bitcoin.
US Treasury sanctions Iran-linked crypto exchanges for first time
The United States Treasury has sanctioned two cryptocurrency exchanges linked to Iran’s financial system, marking the first time Washington has directly targeted digital asset platforms as part of its Iran sanctions program.
In a statement on Friday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the sanctions are part of a wider move against Iranian officials and networks accused of violently suppressing people at home while using alternative financial channels to get around international sanctions.
Among those sanctioned was Eskandar Momeni Kalagari, Iran’s minister of the interior, who oversees the country’s Law Enforcement Forces. “Treasury will continue to target Iranian networks and corrupt elites that enrich themselves at the expense of the Iranian people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
OFAC also designated Babak Morteza Zanjani, a well-known Iranian businessman previously convicted of embezzling billions of dollars in oil revenue from Iran’s national oil company. According to the Treasury, Zanjani was released from prison and later used by the Iranian state to help move and launder funds, providing financial support to projects tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Liquidations knock Bitcoin out of world’s top 10 assets
Bitcoin’s sharp reversal this week has pushed it outside the world’s 10 largest assets by market capitalization, underscoring how difficult price action has been in recent months as markets continue to digest the cryptocurrency industry’s largest forced liquidation on record.
Hovering around $83,000 per coin, Bitcoin’s market capitalization has slipped to about $1.65 trillion, ranking it 11th globally. That places it just behind Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil giant, and below Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to market data trackers.
By contrast, gold has surged to the top spot by a wide margin following a record-breaking rally, cementing its position as the world’s largest asset. The gains have been accompanied by explosive growth in gold futures activity, a trend highlighted in recent data by cryptocurrency exchange MEXC.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization peaked at nearly $2.5 trillion in October, when prices briefly topped $126,000. The latest sell-off was driven by about $1.6 billion in long liquidations, as prices rapidly fell to below $82,000 from near $90,000.
The move has reignited concerns that the world’s largest cryptocurrency may be in the early stages of a prolonged bear market.
Binance to convert $1 billion SAFU reserves into Bitcoin
Binance is shifting its flagship user protection vehicle, the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), from stablecoin holdings into Bitcoin over the next 30 days, re‑denominating the fund’s reserves into BTC.
In an open letter to the crypto community, the exchange framed the move as an expression of its conviction that Bitcoin (BTC) is the core long‑term asset of the crypto ecosystem rather than just another trading product, and said it will rebalance the fund back up to $1 billion if market volatility drives its value below $800 million.
That decision effectively makes the fund more exposed to Bitcoin price swings, raising questions about whether a sharp BTC drawdown could weaken the buffer precisely when a major security or insolvency event might require rapid payouts.
A spokesperson from Binance told Cointelegraph that the exchange would stand by the industry “through market cycles and uncertainty,” continue investing resources in the broader ecosystem and would consider allocations of “core assets,” such as BNB, in its next review.
The spokesperson added that Binance would “use our treasury reserves” to top up the SAFU fund if it dipped below $800 million.
SAFU, launched in 2018, is funded by a slice of Binance trading fees and is designed as an emergency pot to reimburse users in “extreme” cases such as hacks or critical platform failures.
The spokesperson said that the types of losses covered by SAFU “may include losses sustained by users in the rare event of a platform security or other incident.”
