ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The US on Friday announced new sanctions targeting three Iranian foreign currency exchange houses, as Washington continues taking action against Iran’s shadow banking system.

The US Treasury Department said Tehran’s shadow banking networks handle tens of billions of dollars each year, “much of it derived from Iran’s overseas sales of oil and petrochemicals.”

“Collectively, Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars in foreign currency transactions each year.  Because Iran primarily settles its oil sales in Chinese yuan, these exchange houses play a critical role in converting oil revenues into currencies that are more readily useable by the Iranian military and its partners and proxies,” read the statement from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The sanctioned exchange houses are known as Opal Exchange, which was described by OFAC as a “leading sanctions-evasion facilitator,” Radin Exchange, which has allegedly enabled billions of dollars worth of transactions annually, and Arz Iran Exchange which “leverage an international network of front companies that launder billions of dollars annually.”

As a consequence of the sanctions, assets in the US owned 51 percent or more by those targeted are frozen, while US citizens are prohibited from dealing with them.

The US Treasury said on Wednesday that it has targeted Iran’s financial and oil networks, disrupting billions of dollars in revenue.

“The Treasury Department, through Economic Fury, has targeted Iran’s international shadow banking infrastructure,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X, adding that “these actions have disrupted tens of billions of dollars in revenue that would be used to fund terrorism.”

A US naval blockade on Iranian ports is also in place which US President Donald Trump has claimed costs Tehran $500 million daily.

Bessent asserted that the Kharg Island, Iran’s main hub for oil exports, is nearing storage capacity, prompting a decline in oil production and “resulting in an additional approximately $170 million per day in lost revenue.”