How did the Iranian company Nobitex manage to transfer at least $2.3 billion through the

How did the Iranian company Nobitex manage to transfer at least $2.3 billion through the TRON and BNB Chain platforms linked to supporters of World Liberty Financial, a company owned by the Trump family? And what do these transfers reveal about the shocking contradiction between Trump's business interests and his responsibilities as President of the United States

LONDON - When customers of Iran’s largest crypto exchange needed to move billions of dollars, networks created by two of the industry’s biggest players served as conduits.

And from the early stages of President Donald Trump’s flagship digital currency venture, the same two players lent credibility to the startup

According to data analysed by Reuters, Iran’s Nobitex exchange has processed at least $2.3 billion since 2023 on Tron and BNB Chain, blockchains established respectively under crypto billionaires Justin Sun and Changpeng Zhao. Users of Tron and BNB Chain pay fees to use the blockchains, which serve as secure, tamper-resistant record keepers.

Iranian money has kept moving through those two digital ledgers during the U.S. and Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.

Sun and Binance, the crypto exchange owned by Zhao, are both prominent backers of World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm co-founded by Trump and his family

There’s no suggestion that the Trump family knew of Nobitex’s use of Tron and BNB Chain.

Still, the Iran transactions highlight the potentially conflicted position in which the Trumps’ sprawling business interests have placed the U.S. presidency. The family-owned Trump Organization real-estate empire, for example, continues to pursue foreign deals.

The use of the blockchains by institutions in a country the United States is at war with is a “dramatic irony,” said John Reed Stark, a former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Internet Enforcement. “The entities doing crypto financing through these platforms are the very ones that the president is trying to defeat in the war.

The administration denies that Trump’s businesses pose any conflict of interest. “Reuters’ bizarre attempts to link President Trump to Iran’s banking system are totally laughable,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman. She referred Reuters to World Liberty for further questions.

A spokeswoman for World Liberty said the company has no relationship with Nobitex and follows U.S. law. “World Liberty does not own, operate, or control Tron in any way, and has no authority over transactions conducted on it,” she said.