OFAC Sanctions: What They Are, Who They Target, and How They Affect Crypto

When the U.S. government puts a OFAC sanctions, a list of individuals, companies, and countries blocked by the U.S. Treasury for illegal activity. Also known as Specially Designated Nationals list, it’s not just about politics—it’s a live firewall that freezes crypto wallets, shuts down exchanges, and erases airdrops overnight. If you’re trading, holding, or even just claiming tokens tied to a sanctioned entity, you’re playing with fire—and the IRS, FinCEN, and Coinbase all check this list daily.

OFAC sanctions aren’t theoretical. They’ve taken down entire crypto networks. In 2024, nine Myanmar-based crypto entities linked to $10 billion in scams got blacklisted because they funded human trafficking and forced-labor operations in Shwe Kokko. That same year, Coinbase blocked users in 63+ countries not because of local laws, but because those countries had entities on the OFAC list. Even if you’re in Portugal or Brazil, if your wallet ever interacted with a sanctioned address—even once—you could be locked out. And no, courts won’t help you recover funds. The Treasury doesn’t ask for permission.

It’s not just about countries. It’s about sanctioned crypto entities, blockchain projects, exchanges, or tokens officially banned by the U.S. government. Think of Altsbit’s collapse after its hack, or Videocoin by Drakula—a fake token that copied a real name to trick people. Those aren’t scams because they’re bad code. They’re scams because they’re often fronts for entities already on OFAC’s radar. Even if a project looks legit, if its founders, investors, or wallet addresses have ties to sanctioned zones like North Korea, Iran, or Crimea, it’s dead on arrival. You won’t see a warning. Your wallet just stops working.

And then there’s the airdrop trap. Projects like SWAPP Protocol claim to be giving away free tokens—but if even one of their early investors is on OFAC’s list, the entire airdrop is illegal under U.S. law. That’s why Aperture Finance’s APTR airdrop was clean: they audited every participant. MurAll’s PAINT token? Still alive because it was distributed before the crackdown. But if you try to claim a token tied to a sanctioned entity today, you’re not getting free crypto—you’re risking your entire account.

OFAC sanctions don’t care if you didn’t know. They don’t care if you’re in Germany or Ghana. If your wallet touches a blacklisted address, your assets freeze. That’s why crypto compliance isn’t a buzzword—it’s survival. The posts below show you exactly how these sanctions play out: from Brazil’s $10,000 forex cap to China’s silent crypto ban, from Coinbase’s geo-blocks to the dead airdrops no one talks about. You’ll see real cases where people lost everything because they ignored a single name on a government list. This isn’t theory. It’s happening right now—and if you’re not checking, you’re already at risk.