LONDON , Britain summoned Iran's most senior diplomat in London on Tuesday over what the Foreign Office described as Tehran's direct role in directing proxy groups to carry out a wave of attacks across Europe, as newly uncovered blockchain records reveal the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) moved hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to finance the operations.

Charge d'Affaires Ali Nasimfar was called to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office over allegations that the IRGC's Quds Force directed the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR, also known by its Arabic acronym HAYI) to conduct attacks across Europe between March and May, the British Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Despite repeated warnings, Iran's intelligence services have not ceased in their hostile activity. Instead, Iran has sought to intensify its malign behaviour," the ministry said.

The diplomatic escalation caps a week of extraordinary moves by London. On Monday, the UK government designated the IRGC and the IMCR as security threats under the newly passed National Security (State Threats) Act 2026 , a landmark law that makes it a criminal offense to support either group, punishable by up to life imprisonment for those who commit sabotage on their behalf.

The IMCR, a shadowy Islamist brand that appeared from nowhere in March 2026, publicly claimed responsibility for seven attacks on UK soil, including an arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23 and a petrol bomb attack on Finchley Reform Synagogue. Similar attacks struck a synagogue in Rotterdam, a Jewish school in Amsterdam, and a foiled bombing outside a Bank of America branch in Paris.

None of the attacks caused casualties , but that appears to have been by design.

The operational model is what counterterrorism experts now call "gig-economy terrorism." French investigators established that three minors were recruited via Snapchat and paid between €500 and €1,000 in cryptocurrency to plant an incendiary device outside Bank of America's Paris headquarters. The adult intermediary told police he was contacted by a third party on social media and asked to carry out the attack as part of a "personal vendetta",a cover story now recognized as a standard Iranian deniability tactic.

"We've seen a pattern: recruits with no ideological affiliation, paid small amounts in crypto, directed to strike soft targets at night," said Mohamed Fahmi, an extremist propaganda expert at the Free University of Brussels. "They're sending a message that Iran can strike anywhere in Europe, at any time, for pocket change."

The financial backbone of the proxy campaign has become increasingly visible to blockchain intelligence firms. RAKIA, a cyber intelligence company whose platforms are used by Western governments, detected a surge of funds leaving Iranian-linked cryptocurrency accounts within hours of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

"We've seen a surge of funds since the first hours of the war," said Omri Raiter, RAKIA's founder and CEO. "It started with tens of millions in the first hours, and it grew to hundreds of millions and more. Money was just flowing out from Iranian crypto accounts."

A RAKIA report reviewed by Fox News Digital documented more than $3 billion flowing through IRGC-linked wallets in 2025 alone. After the February strikes, Iran imposed a sweeping nationwide internet blackout , connectivity dropped to roughly 1% of normal levels , yet RAKIA researchers detected more than 1,100 active cryptocurrency nodes operating inside the country, concentrated along the Tehran-Qom corridor where major IRGC institutions are located.

"When the internet is at one percent and you still see over a thousand active crypto nodes, you're not looking at retail users," said Tom Malca, RAKIA's head of cyber and AI research. "Those nodes require dedicated bandwidth, stable power and deliberate exemption from the shutdown."

In a separate investigation published in January, TRM Labs identified two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges , Zedcex and Zedxion , that moved over a billion dollars in stablecoins for the IRGC, highlighting how Iranian actors exploit London's financial infrastructure to fund proxy operations abroad.

A New Era of State-Threat Legislation

Britain's decision to proscribe the IRGC under the new state-threats powers represents a significant departure from previous approaches. The IRGC , which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization since 2019 , had previously been handled in the UK primarily through sanctions rather than criminal law.

"In just one year, MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK," Security Minister Angela Eagle told Parliament on Monday. "The IRGC's role extends far beyond that of a conventional military force. It encompasses intelligence activity, the use of proxy actors, and the projection of influence designed to advance Iranian state objectives."

Tehran condemned the designation, calling the IRGC an official part of Iran's armed forces and accusing Britain of violating international law. The Iranian embassy in London did not respond to requests for comment.

The UK's actions are part of a wider European crackdown. France, the Netherlands, and Belgium have opened coordinated counterterrorism investigations, with Paris charging four individuals , including three minors , with criminal terrorist conspiracy over the Bank of America plot. Belgium deployed soldiers to protect Jewish sites during Passover for the first time in years.

In Sweden, the Foxtrot criminal gang , sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in March 2025 for acting as an Iranian proxy , continues to recruit minors via social media for attacks across Scandinavia. U.S. and Israeli officials say Iran ordered Foxtrot to attack the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm in January 2024, and two Foxtrot-recruited Swedish teenagers were sentenced to 12 years in a Danish court in February 2026 for throwing grenades at the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen.

"The proxy war funding and the personal capital flight are two sides of the same coin," Raiter said. "They move through the same pipelines."

As Western governments race to adapt their legal and intelligence frameworks to this new model of outsourced, crypto-financed proxy warfare, one thing is clear: the battlefield has expanded far beyond the Middle East, and the payment rail of choice runs on the blockchain.