The US Treasury has frozen more than $130 million in digital assets tied to the Central Bank of Iran, most of it in Tether’s USDT stablecoin held on the Tron network. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the action on Tuesday via X, stating it aims to cut off the Iranian regime from revenue generated by illicit activities.
Treasury Targets Iranian Crypto Wallets
The freeze was executed by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, with Tether cooperating to lock the funds in designated addresses. Blockchain investigator Specter first flagged the move, sharing on-chain data showing four Tron wallets containing approximately $131 million in USDT had been frozen.
This action appears to be part of Operation Economic Fury, a financial-pressure campaign against Iran launched by Washington in March last year. In April, US authorities had Tether freeze roughly $344 million of USDT across two wallets, and Bessent said in May that the government had seized around $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets. Treasury previously sanctioned four Iranian crypto exchanges under the same operation.
Escalating Tensions
“US Treasury is committed to disrupting and degrading Iran’s illicit financial activities, including its abuse of digital assets,” Bessent said in his post. “We will continue to aggressively follow the money and deny the Iranian regime access to the proceeds of its illicit revenue schemes.”
The latest freeze comes as a ceasefire between the US and Iran has collapsed. The US has renewed a naval blockade of Iranian ports and announced fresh strikes, while Iran has launched drone attacks on a US-used air base in Jordan.