The United States has sanctioned eight Canadian currency exchange businesses it accuses of helping Iranian entities dodge financial restrictions, expanding a campaign Washington brands as an effort to cut economic lifelines to Tehran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Treasury Department announced the measures on Friday under the label Operation Economic Outcast. It said some of the firms converted Iranian rials and other currencies into digital assets and that some activity was linked to an alleged drug trafficking figure. Firms named in public statements include Million Exchange, Amin Exchange and Cryptoyal, with operations in Ontario and British Columbia.

Sanctions freeze any United States assets the businesses hold and bar American people and companies from dealing with them, effectively cutting access to the dollar system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Canada should not be a safe haven for facilitators who help the Iranian state and its proxies evade controls.

Canada’s financial intelligence unit said it worked with its United States counterpart to support the action and stressed routine cooperation against money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion through bilateral information sharing.

In a parallel step, the United States anti money laundering agency issued an order aimed at crypto platform MEXC Global, incorporated in Seychelles. Officials claim it handled at least sixteen billion dollars in illicit flows tied to Iran, North Korea and Russia and to other sanctioned actors, and they told American banks to block related transfers.

Earlier in the week Washington also targeted a network in India and Turkey accused of helping Iran move oil and airline related funds. US statements last week claimed pressure had pushed the rial to fresh lows and driven inflation near ninety percent.

The Canadian listings show how the Iran war’s financial front now reaches money shops and crypto rails far from the Gulf. Ottawa’s public cooperation message sits beside the practical reality that local exchange houses can still become nodes in sanctions busting chains when dollar clearing remains the choke point.