Stablecoin large Tether mentioned on Monday it has helped US authorities freeze practically $550 million in Iran-linked USDT to date this yr.
The corporate detailed two of these developments. The primary, in April, locked greater than $344 million in USDT throughout two TRON addresses. The corporate acted on data from the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) and US legislation enforcement. OFAC added each addresses to its sanctions entry for the Central Financial institution of Iran on April 24.
Treasury Names Crypto a Sanctions Goal
That entry hyperlinks the central financial institution to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Pressure and Hezbollah. OFAC added 4 extra TRON addresses to the identical entry on July 14. Tether froze greater than $130 million in USDT throughout these 4 wallets. Collectively, the 2 freezes come to greater than $474 million. Tether’s launch doesn’t itemize the remaining ones.
“Public blockchains present authorities with a stage of visibility into the motion of funds that merely doesn’t exist with money, and Tether can act when credible data is offered by legislation enforcement,” mentioned Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
In June, the US Treasury sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto change. It mentioned the platform helped the central financial institution get hold of stablecoins used to help the falling rial.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then launched Operation Financial Outcast on August 24 towards the Iranian regime’s monetary networks. Its sectoral sanctions determinations title 5 sectors, beginning with digital belongings, expertise, gold, aviation, and transport. The Treasury mentioned Iran more and more makes use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, together with for transactions linked to the IRGC.
On September 17, OFAC sanctioned Iranian crypto change BitBank, which it mentioned is managed by sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani. The Treasury alleged that BitBank moved lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of Bitcoin (BTC) to the IRGC in June and July.
Tether Additionally Acts on Israeli Referrals
Tether mentioned it has labored with Israel’s Nationwide Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) for a number of years. It has frozen greater than 22 million USDT throughout over 40 instances the bureau referred to the corporate.
In September 2025, the NBCTF revealed 187 crypto addresses it tied to the IRGC. Blockchain analytics agency Elliptic reported that these addresses had acquired $1.5 billion in USDT, and Tether blacklisted 39 of them, freezing the roughly $1.5 million they nonetheless held. Although Elliptic famous that among the addresses could belong to crypto companies dealing with funds for a lot of prospects.
Throughout all its instances, Tether mentioned it has helped freeze greater than $4.9 billion, together with greater than $2.4 billion tied to US authorities.
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