Tether Freezes Nearly $550M in Iran-Linked USDT in 2026 as US Crackdown Expands
Stablecoin large Tether stated on Monday it has helped US authorities freeze almost $550 million in Iran-linked USDT to date this 12 months.
The firm detailed two of these developments. The first, in April, locked greater than $344 million in USDT throughout two TRON addresses. The firm acted on data from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and US regulation enforcement. OFAC added each addresses to its sanctions entry for the Central Bank of Iran on April 24.
Treasury Names Crypto a Sanctions Target
That entry hyperlinks the central financial institution to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force 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. Together, 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 supplied by regulation enforcement,” stated Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
In June, the US Treasury sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto alternate. It stated the platform helped the central financial institution receive stablecoins used to help the falling rial.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then launched Operation Economic Outcast on August 24 in opposition to the Iranian regime’s monetary networks. Its sectoral sanctions determinations identify 5 sectors, beginning with digital belongings, expertise, gold, aviation, and transport. The Treasury stated 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 alternate BitBank, which it stated is controlled by sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani. The Treasury alleged that BitBank moved a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of Bitcoin (BTC) to the IRGC in June and July.
Tether Also Acts on Israeli Referrals
Tether stated it has labored with Israel’s National 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 printed 187 crypto addresses it tied to the IRGC. Blockchain analytics agency Elliptic reported that these addresses had obtained $1.5 billion in USDT, and Tether blacklisted 39 of them, freezing the roughly $1.5 million they nonetheless held. Though Elliptic famous that a few of the addresses might belong to crypto companies dealing with funds for a lot of clients.
Across all its instances, Tether stated it has helped freeze greater than $4.9 billion, together with greater than $2.4 billion tied to US authorities.
The put up Tether Freezes Nearly $550M in Iran-Linked USDT in 2026 as US Crackdown Expands appeared first on CryptoPotato.
