Iran-Linked Crypto Hit With $131M Freeze Amid Renewed US Military Campaign
The United States has frozen greater than $130 million in crypto property linked to Iran as hostilities within the Middle East proceed to accentuate.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took to X to substantiate that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a number of crypto wallets tied to the Central Bank of Iran.
Escalating Hostilities
Bessent mentioned the motion is a part of the Treasury’s broader effort to disrupt and degrade Iran’s illicit monetary actions. He added,
“We will proceed to aggressively observe the cash and deny the Iranian regime entry to the proceeds of its illicit income schemes.”
In a separate put up, blockchain investigator Specter reported that stablecoin issuer Tether froze 4 TRON wallets holding roughly $131 million in USDT. According to Specter, many of the funds in these wallets had been traced to withdrawals from fee service supplier DTC Pay and crypto alternate Bitso earlier than being frozen. Specter later mentioned the wallets are linked to OFAC-sanctioned entities, together with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran).
The enforcement motion comes because the state of affairs between the US and Iran has considerably deteriorated following the collapse of their ceasefire. The US army mentioned it has reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports after beforehand implementing it between April and June. The growth got here as US forces carried out a fourth consecutive day of strikes on Iranian targets. Meanwhile, Iran’s military mentioned it launched drone assaults on Jordan’s Al-Azraq army base as a part of the seventh section of “Operation Lightning.”
According to an announcement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the operation focused amenities together with places housing F-18 fighter jets, lodging buildings, and a big gear shed. The newest army actions coincided with renewed warnings from Donald Trump, who mentioned in a tv interview that the US would goal bridges and energy crops subsequent week except Tehran returns to the negotiating desk.
Crypto Crackdown on Iran
The newest freeze comes simply months after one other main crackdown. In April, Tether froze greater than $344 million in USDT on the request of US authorities.
The US Treasury additionally sanctioned Iran’s largest crypto alternate, Nobitex, together with Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, as a part of the Trump administration’s Economic Fury marketing campaign final month. US officers alleged that the exchanges helped Iran evade sanctions, course of transactions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and transfer funds by means of digital property.
Treasury additionally claimed Nobitex dealt with greater than half of Iran’s crypto inflows in 2025 and helped the Central Bank of Iran entry a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in stablecoins.
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