FinCEN orders U.S. financial cutoff for MEXC

U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has ordered a cutoff of funds transfers between MEXC Global and U.S. financial institutions, citing at least $16 billion in flows it says were linked to illicit activity. The Treasury announcement says the order targets MEXC’s access to the U.S. financial system under a law addressing Russian money laundering. It takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

What transfers will the order stop?

Once effective, the order bars U.S. financial institutions from transmitting funds to or from MEXC Global. FinCEN issued it under Section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. The mechanism runs through institutions that process transfers: they must stop sending funds to MEXC and receiving funds from it. The order does not itself say that MEXC’s exchange will shut down worldwide.

The action is a financial-system restriction, not a blanket freeze on the crypto assets held by MEXC users. Treasury says the order does not change existing Bank Secrecy Act duties, including suspicious activity reporting, or sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

What does the $16 billion figure cover?

FinCEN says MEXC facilitated at least $16 billion in funds connected to sanctions evasion, cybercrime and other illicit activity between May 2021 and May 2026. That is the agency’s assessment of the flows, not a finding that every transaction was illicit.

Treasury says nearly $1.5 billion of the total was linked to Russian sanctions evasion. It identified $232 million in direct transactions with entities sanctioned by the United States, the European Union or the United Kingdom. The agency also says MEXC processed transactions involving sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex and its successor, Grinex, as recently as June 2026.

For the same five-year period, FinCEN says MEXC sent or received about $1 billion in direct transactions with more than 40 Iranian crypto exchanges. It also cites about $22 million in transactions benefiting Iran’s sanctioned central bank and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Qods Force.

Why does the order cite Russian finance?

Section 9714 is the legal basis FinCEN used to identify MEXC as a money-laundering concern tied to Russian illicit finance and impose the transfer restriction. Treasury announced the move as part of Operation Economic Outcast, its campaign against Iranian financial networks, but the legal finding in this order rests on alleged Russian connections.

CoinDesk’s report on the order says MEXC stated it was operating normally while reviewing the order and conducting an independent review of its anti-money-laundering and sanctions controls. The cutoff will constrain the exchange’s ability to move funds through U.S. financial institutions when the order takes effect; the announcement does not establish what effect it will have on MEXC’s operations elsewhere.

Sources

• Treasury announcement — home.treasury.gov
• report on the order — coindesk.com