Technical2026-07-26

What is OFAC SDN and what it means if an address is on the list

A plain-language explanation of OFAC SDN — the US Treasury sanctions list. What it means for a crypto address, who gets listed, how often it's updated, and what to do on a match.

The OFAC SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list is the most well-known sanctions list in the world, defining who US persons cannot do business with. Since 2018, OFAC has included crypto addresses. Let's break it down in plain language.

What is OFAC

OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) is a division of the US Department of the Treasury. Its job is to enforce economic sanctions against terrorists, drug cartels, rogue regimes, and human rights violators.

The SDN list is a registry of individuals and organizations that US citizens and companies are prohibited from doing business with. Since 2018, it has included digital currency addresses.

Who gets on the SDN list

Terrorists and their financing (ISIS, Al-Qaeda)
Drug cartels (Mexican, Colombian)
Rogue regimes (DPRK, Iran, Syria, Cuba)
Cybercriminals (LAZARUS GROUP, Ryuk)
Russian oligarchs and their linked businesses
Sanctions-violating crypto exchanges (Garantex, Bitzlato, Suex, Chatex)

959crypto addresses in OFAC SDN (in our DB)

~27 MBsize of the full SDN XML file

Dailyupdate frequency (our cron)

What "address on the SDN list" means

Direct consequences

If an address is on OFAC SDN — this is a legal fact. No US company (Binance, Coinbase, Chainalysis) can interact with it. Any transfer from this address = "dirty" funds.

Scenario A: your address is on the SDN list

All transfers from it are blocked by exchanges.
Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Elliptic flag it risk=100.
Withdrawing funds through legitimate channels is virtually impossible.

Scenario B: you received funds from an SDN address

Your wallet is "tainted" — AML systems see the connection.
The exchange will freeze the deposit with a source-of-funds request.
P2P conversion to fiat — account block under AML rules.

How OFAC SDN gets into VerifAML

Download the official sdn_advanced.xml (public domain) from treasury.gov.
Parse the sdnEntry > idList > id structure, extracting Digital Currency Address.
Hash addresses (SHA-256) and store in Supabase.
Cron updates daily at 06:00 UTC.
On check — exact chain match yields risk 90 (Critical).

Examples of sanctioned addresses

Address	Network	Entity	Program
`0x098B716B8Aaf...`	ETH	LAZARUS GROUP	DPRK3
`TNiq9AXBp9EjUq...`	TRX	BANK MARKAZI IRAN	IRAN
`3Lpoy53K625zVe...`	BTC	Garantex	Russia

Related materials

OFAC SDN is a public list. VerifAML uses it directly, without intermediaries.