Door slammed in Washington. On Friday, November 6, the US Treasury ordered the country's banks to cut ties with MEXC Global. Payment providers are also affected. Reason: $16.7 billion in transactions that FinCEN links to Iran, North Korea and Russia. The exchange registered in Seychelles thus loses access to the dollar, after sanctions against the Russian A7 network in 2025.
MEXC covered by Section 9714: what the FinCEN order says
FinCEN is the Treasury's anti-money laundering unit. But it did not sanction MEXC in the classic sense of the term: no asset freeze, no OFAC blacklist. She chose a more discreet and more radical tool, section 9714 of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. This text allows it to designate a foreign financial institution as a “major money laundering concern”. It still has to serve Russian illicit finance. The order will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register. Then, any American financial institution will be prohibited from transmitting funds to or from MEXC.
The order is part of “Economic Outcast,” the Treasury’s campaign launched in August against Iranian financial networks. According to FinCEN, $16.7 billion in suspicious flows passed through the platform between May 2021 and May 2026. There is circumvention of Iranian and Russian sanctions. But also funds linked to North Korean hackers and cybercrime. FinCEN had already drawn section 9714 against Bitzlato in January 2023, then against the Russian exchange PM2BTC in September 2024. MEXC is of another size. The Treasury ranks it among the top twenty platforms in the world, with more than a billion dollars exchanged every day.
The full text of the decision can be consulted on the Treasury website (press release of November 6, 2026).
MEXC promises “normal operations” but dollar moves away
The reaction from the exchange arrived within a few hours. MEXC assures The Defiant that its withdrawals remain open and its services are operating normally. The platform also announces an independent review of its anti-money laundering and sanctions controls. Finally, she points out that she does not officially accept American clients.
The problem is elsewhere. An exchange without an American license still lives on the dollar. It relies on correspondent accounts, payment providers and market makers based in the United States. It mainly depends on stablecoins issued by American companies, such as Circle's USDC. However, the order specifically targets American financial institutions. Fiat ramp partners therefore risk cutting first. Then market makers exposed to American law will withdraw their liquidity. Dollar pairs could thus be emptied well before a single asset is frozen.
What about you, if you have funds on MEXC? The FinCEN order does not directly affect your cryptos. It also does not force the platform to block anything. On the other hand, a private dollar access platform almost always ends up delisting pairs or extending its withdrawal times. Some jurisdictions may also be closed. Removing what does not need to remain on the platform therefore remains the least risky option. There’s no need to rush though: first check the fees and available networks.
Garantex and Huione already on the Treasury's de facto blacklist
Before MEXC, two precedents. Garantex was first sanctioned by OFAC in April 2022, then dismantled in March 2025. Then, Huione Group was cut off from the US system in October 2025, under Section 311 of the Patriot Act. This Cambodian conglomerate was accused of laundering money from North Korean scams and hackers. Each time, we find an offshore platform, enormous volumes and few entry controls. Washington adds a portion of flows linked to sanctions deemed intolerable.
What changes this time is the political calendar. The Democrats have just won both houses of Congress in the November 3 midterms. However, the order comes from a Trump administration which has largely relaxed regulation of the sector. It thus shows that it keeps a heavy hand on illicit finance. Exchanges that accept Russian or Iranian volumes without asking questions therefore have an interest in quickly reviewing their customer knowledge procedures. And there's some left.
