US Freezes $344 Million in USDT, Targeting Iran's Financial Networks

In its latest move to disrupt Iran's financial networks, the US Treasury Department has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency, as part of a broader initiative known as 'Economic Fury'. The freeze is the result of sanctions imposed on multiple crypto wallets linked to Iran by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US will track and target all financial channels tied to the Iranian regime, following the money as Tehran attempts to move it outside the country. The sanctions follow Tether's decision to blacklist two blockchain addresses holding $344 million in USDT. A US official revealed that the sanctioned wallets had significant links to the Iranian regime, including transactions with Iranian exchanges and connections to wallets associated with the Central Bank of Iran. The Iranian central bank has been using digital assets to conceal cross-border transactions. Authorities have noted that Iran has increasingly turned to cryptocurrency to evade restrictions, using complex transaction patterns to obscure its involvement in cross-border payments and support trade flows under sanctions pressure. The Treasury Department's OFAC is taking aggressive action against both traditional front companies and the use of digital assets, while also working with blockchain analytics firms and coordinating with financial institutions to track illicit flows tied to sanctioned entities.