Tether says it helped freeze $550M in Iran-linked USDT this year — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Tether disclosed it froze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026, including over $130 million across four wallets and over $344 million tied to Iran's Central Bank in April.
- Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report alleging USDT became a key sanctions-evasion channel, finding 84% of 846 crypto wallets sanctioned for Iran ties transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT.
- Senator Richard Blumenthal called on the Treasury and Justice departments to investigate potential sanctions violations by Tether.
- Tether said its cooperation with global authorities has frozen more than $4.9 billion in assets cumulatively, including more than $2.4 billion connected to US agencies like DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, HSI, and OFAC.
- Manhattan US Attorney is separately leading a probe into Binance's Iran compliance, per Bloomberg, placing a second major crypto exchange under sanctions-related scrutiny.
Why it matters: The Senate finding that 84% of 846 sanctioned Iran-linked wallets used USDT gives Blumenthal a concrete data point to press Treasury and Justice for enforcement, while Tether's parallel disclosure of $550 million in Iran-specific freezes and $4.9 billion in cumulative frozen assets is a public-relations countermove aimed at pre-empting the very investigation Blumenthal just requested.
Ask SkimNews
