US freezes $131M in Iran-linked crypto
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- US Treasury froze $131M in Iran-linked crypto assets as part of Operation Economic Fury, intensifying financial pressure on the Iranian regime.
- Tether confirmed in April it had frozen over $344 million in USDT at the request of US authorities, marking a prior major intervention in Iranian crypto flows.
- Scott Bessent stated in May that US authorities have seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets under Operation Economic Fury since its March 2025 launch.
- Treasury Department disrupted foreign procurement networks supporting Iran’s military, claiming it has dismantled key components of the Iranian war machine through asset freezes.
- Iran-linked entities moved $3.8 billion through the exchange CoinEx, according to blockchain analytics firm TRM, revealing significant crypto-based procurement channels.
Why it matters: The US has now frozen or seized over $1.4 billion in Iranian crypto assets in just over three months, directly targeting military procurement networks. This scale of action signals a shift toward treating crypto exchanges as critical nodes in national security enforcement, with real-time financial disruption becoming a core tool against state-level adversaries.
