Dozens of Bitcoin and Monero addresses have been added to the U.S. government’s list of sanctioned entities, according to an announcement.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified 49 virtual currency addresses used by Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, the alleged administrator of the Nemesis darknet marketplace.
In total, 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses were singled out. Monero is a privacy coin designed to shield transaction details and other identifying information.
Parsarad was subject to an international law enforcement operation in 2024. Nemesis reportedly had 30,000 active users before being taken offline and facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of narcotics during its three years of operation.
“Parsarad enriched himself from fees he charged users of Nemesis with every transaction, pocketing what OFAC estimates to be millions of dollars over the course of the marketplace’s existence,” OFAC wrote in a statement. “In addition to providing criminals with a platform to conduct transactions, Parsarad laundered virtual currencies for narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals active on Nemesis.”
Nemesis offered an array of drugs, personal identifying data, forged documents and ransomware as well as cybercrime services like phishing and DDoS tools.
The sanctions are allegedly tied to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order looking to stamp out the fentanyl trade. Parsarad does not appear to have been apprehended and has allegedly “discussed setting up a new darknet marketplace” with former vendors, OFAC claims.
The Treasury Department has worked to take down a number of darknet sites in recent years. In 2022, law enforcement agents shuttered Hydra Market, which was seen as the largest bust since the Silk Road was taken offline.
In January, Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had served over 10 years of his life sentence.
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