Treasury Sanctions Iran-Linked Crypto Wallets After $344M Freeze

On Friday the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on multiple cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran after Tether froze $344 million in USDT that U.S. authorities tied to Iranian sanctions. Treasury described the action as intended to disrupt channels used to move funds out of Iran and to cut off financial lifelines connected to sanctioned entities.

Tether froze the funds a day earlier and said the action was carried out in coordination with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control and federal law enforcement. Blockchain analysts identified two Tron network addresses involved: one holding about $213 million in USDT and the other about $131 million. Both addresses were blacklisted at the smart contract level, and investigators reported they had been more active in earlier years, with funds appearing to have been consolidated into those wallets.

Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis estimated Iran’s cryptocurrency holdings at about $7.8 billion in 2025, with roughly half of that amount attributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The firm reported that the IRGC regularly moves transfers of several million dollars between private wallets.

Iran has accepted bitcoin for transit fees on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is a known center for bitcoin mining, activities that have contributed to domestic expertise in handling and transferring digital assets.

Officials said the Treasury will continue to monitor on-chain activity and take action to freeze or sanction wallets linked to illicit or sanctioned uses. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote: “We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime.”